Donald Trump announced Thursday, June 4, an investment of $700 million in the coal industry to keep mines operating, but also to build two new power plants, provoking the anger of the Democratic opposition. During a press conference, the American president stressed that the states in which these sites, 14 power plants and 42 existing mines are located, had all majority voted for him in the last presidential election.
“Our action will allow this infrastructure to invest and modernize,” explained Donald Trump, “which will extend its lifespan by decades, strengthen the reliability of our electric grid and, most importantly, keep electricity prices very low. »
The released envelope will also be used for the construction of a maritime terminal in Oakland (California), intended in particular for the export of coal, said the American president. Coal production in the United States was halved between 2005, a peak, and 2020. It reached a low point in 2024, before rebounding last year, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Over the first four months of 2026, it even accelerated slightly.
According to a report from the Global Energies Monitor observatory, the United States is the only major economy to have significantly increased its coal consumption in 2025. Until now, the deceleration of coal in the United States was firstly linked to a loss of competitiveness compared to other countries, notably China, but also to environmental concerns.
Coal is a major contributor to planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, and its phase-out is seen as key to tackling climate change. During the press conference, Donald Trump spoke of “beautiful clean coal”. About 9% of energy consumed in the United States in 2025 came from coal, according to the EIA, the same as renewable energy.
“Promote polluters”
The president said the two new plants would be located in West Virginia and Alaska, built “with brand new, very clean technology.” The last coal-fired power plant in the United States was commissioned in 2013 at the Sandy Creek Energy Center in McLennan, Texas.
A study by six universities estimated that emissions from coal plants caused the deaths of 460,000 people between 1999 and 2000. “The previous (Joe) Biden administration went so far to support massively subsidized, intermittent and weather-dependent sources of electricity that our power grid was at risk,” said Federal Land Management Secretary Doug Burgum during the press briefing at the White House. You understood how essential coal was. It is the backbone of reliable, affordable and secure American energy,” the minister added.
“Spending $700 million on a dirty and inefficient energy source favors polluters to the detriment of Americans, while we are going through an energy crisis caused by Trump,” reacted, on
The war waged by the United States and Israel against Iran led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the obligatory crossing point for 20% of the world’s oil and gas, causing the price of black gold to rise by more than 50%. A study published in 2025 by the Lazard bank calculated that the cost of electricity produced by renewable energy sources was competitive compared to that of fossil fuels, including coal, even without public subsidies.
Since taking office, Donald Trump has given priority to fossil fuels in American energy policy to the detriment of renewable energies, particularly wind power. He suspended the granting of new permits for wind farms and obtained from several energy companies the abandonment of major projects and tried to block, in vain, those which were in the process of being carried out.
