Trump’s order to turbocharge coal is built on ‘false narrative,’ clean energy advocates warn

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday protecting coal and overhauling the Biden Administration’s sweeping rules that aimed to reduce carbon emissions from coal power plants. 

Titled “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry,” the order directs his cabinet to move fast to increase coal-powered energy production in the country and to undo federal regulatory barriers that may prevent that task ahead of the anticipated rise of energy-hungry artificial intelligence centers and manufacturing activity.

“We’re slashing unnecessary regulations that targeted the beautiful clean coal. We will rapidly expedite leases for coal mining on federal lands (…) and we’ll streamline permitting,” Trump said during the announcement on Tuesday. “We will end the government bias against coal, and we’re going to unlock the sweeping authorities of defense production Act, the defense production act to turbocharge coal mining in America.”

While coal is a rock, not a mineral, the White House also required the National Energy Dominance Council to designate coal as a mineral so that it’s covered by the protections established by a March executive order that creates a process to expedite mineral production projects in the country and allow leases for mineral extraction on public lands.

The executive order received applause from Republican lawmakers and coal miners who posed in the background as Trump announced the anticipated measures. Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee showed his enthusiasm for Trump’s order, making multiple posts on X from his seat at the signing event. 

“Biden sought energy subservience. Trump wants dominance,” Lee wrote on X, quoting a post from Vivek Ramaswamy that read “Energy dominance is a requirement for manufacturing dominance.”

Trump signs orders targeting revival of ‘beautiful, clean coal’

However, environmental and clean energy advocates were dismayed to hear the news, not only because of what it would mean for carbon emissions in the country.

Sarah Wright, CEO of Utah Clean Energy, said the executive order paints a false narrative that having an affordable, reliable energy system can’t happen at the same time as efforts to address the consequences of climate change.

“The United States can be ‘energy dominant’ by investing in the next generation of energy resources. Wind, solar, geothermal, and storage represent the future and incredible opportunities for the U.S. to lead,” Wright wrote in a statement. “This executive order is firmly rooted in the past, setting the U.S. up to fall further behind countries like China that are leading in clean energy technology development and associated economic opportunities.”

The Sierra Club also wrote in a news release that alongside tariffs that would reverse renewable energy efforts, Trump’s policies are expected to raise monthly energy bills for Americans, since renewable energy can be 30% cheaper than coal. With increased carbon emissions, also come public health consequences, including respiratory and heart conditions, Sierra Club leaders said.

“This is the latest move in a pattern to force a plan that simply isn’t economical, and these orders won’t change that,” Luis Miranda, Sierra Club Utah senior organizer, said in a statement. “What they will do is delay a meaningful energy transition that could protect workers and create long-term, good-paying jobs. This band-aid approach does nothing but buy time from a clock that’s already run out.”

The order, however, is in line with Utah’s energy policy, where there were already steps to facilitate coal-powered energy production. Utah Republican lawmakers have often referred to coal as an important component of their “all-of-the-above” energy strategy and have passed laws that, in essence, are meant to protect coal as other states make moves to adopt clean energy resources and phase out fossil fuels.

Rocky Mountain Power, Utah’s largest electric utility, also has plans to keep operating its two coal plants, Hunter and Huntington, indefinitely, eliminating their 2032 retirement plans. 

The executive order is hardly a surprise. Trump had already made clear his intentions to boost energy production and to “drill, baby, drill” since his inaugural speech. On Tuesday, he also referred to the Green New Deal — a proposed resolution by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, that never passed but is frequently targeted by Republicans — as the “green new scam” and took a jab again at the Paris Agreement, an international treaty to combat climate change that Trump ordered the U.S. to withdraw from. 

PacifiCorp extends the life of Utah coal-powered plants — indefinitely

Trump also signed another order on Tuesday titled “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach,” an action that requires the removal of “all illegitimate impediments” to developing coal and other resources, including oil, natural gas, hydropower, geothermal, biofuel, critical minerals and nuclear energy resources. 

“Many States have enacted, or are in the process of enacting, burdensome and ideologically motivated ‘climate change’ or energy policies that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security,” the order reads, pointing to policy examples in New York, Vermont and California. 

Trump argued that clean energy efforts from those states influence the whole country and undermine federalism. So, he ordered the U.S. Attorney General to identify any state laws “purporting to address ‘climate change’ or involving ‘environmental, social, and governance’ initiatives, ‘environmental justice,’ carbon or ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions, and funds to collect carbon penalties or carbon taxes,” and to take action to stop their enforcement.

“These State laws and policies are fundamentally irreconcilable with my Administration’s objective to unleash American energy,” Trump wrote in the order. “They should not stand.”

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the Green New Deal as a set of policies from the Biden Administration. The Green New Deal was a proposed resolution in Congress.