Trump’s Executive Order Unleashes ‘America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry’
“We will not only match China, we will be cheaper than China by a lot, and more energy will mean lower inflation. It’ll mean more jobs.”
President Donald Trump’s latest executive orders are aimed at America’s energy industries.
Trump signed:
- Reinvigorate America’s beautiful clean coal industry
- Lift Biden-era restrictions on coal plants
- Strengthen the reliability and security of the electric grid
- Protect American energy from overreach by radical leftists in the states
Trump said in a video:
We will develop the liquid gold that is right under our feet, including American oil and natural gas. And we will also embrace nuclear, clean coal, hydro power, which is fantastic, and every other form of affordable energy to get it done.
We will not only match China, we will be cheaper than China by a lot, and more energy will mean lower inflation. It’ll mean more jobs.
I will cancel Biden’s ruinous power plant rule, terminate his electric vehicle mandate. If you want to buy an electric car that’s fine but you’re going to be able to buy every other form of car. Also and unleash domestic energy production like never before.
President Trump campaigned on a promise to embrace clean coal and take aim at Joe Biden's ruinous power plant regulations.
Today was a huge victory for the American miner, worker and consumer.
PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT. https://t.co/iEuiJxXi7w pic.twitter.com/wfbfJ4GZfZ
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 8, 2025
GOOD. I do not want to buy an electric vehicle. I like road trips!
The executive orders combine the Energy, Interior, Justice, and EPA Departments.
DOJ
The DOJ will have the responsibility of reviewing the stupid energy laws in the name of “climate change” implemented by leftist states:
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. New York, for example, enacted a “climate change” extortion law that seeks to retroactively impose billions in fines (erroneously labelled “compensatory payments”) on traditional energy producers for their purported past contributions to greenhouse gas emissions not only in New York but also anywhere in the United States and the world. Vermont similarly extorts energy producers for alleged past contributions to greenhouse gas emissions anywhere in the United States or the globe.
Other States have taken different approaches in an effort to dictate national energy policy. California, for example, punishes carbon use by adopting impossible caps on the amount of carbon businesses may use, all but forcing businesses to pay large sums to “trade” carbon credits to meet California’s radical requirements. Some States delay review of permit applications to produce energy, creating de facto barriers to entry in the energy market. States have also sued energy companies for supposed “climate change” harm under nuisance or other tort regimes that could result in crippling damages.
“These State laws and policies weaken our national security and devastate Americans by driving up energy costs for families coast-to-coast, despite some of these families not living or voting in States with these crippling policies,” continued the executive order. “These laws and policies also undermine Federalism by projecting the regulatory preferences of a few States into all States. Americans must be permitted to heat their homes, fuel their cars, and have peace of mind — free from policies that make energy more expensive and inevitably degrade quality of life.”
The administration said the laws also “try to dictate interstate and international disputes over air, water, and natural resources” while discriminating “against out-of-State businesses” and making the states unequal. They also do not have any “legitimate justification” to “impose arbitrary and excessive fines.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi must review all the laws and regulations that cause those burdens.
Bondi will then tell Trump and describe the actions he can take to offer relief to the American people.
Interior
“The Golden Age is here, and we are starting to ‘Mine, Baby, Mine’ for clean American coal,” said Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. “Interior is unlocking America’s full potential in energy dominance and economic development to make life more affordable for every American family while showing the world the power of America’s natural resources and innovation.”
The Interior noted that “the status of actions related to a federal coal leasing moratorium has been left unclear” over the past nine years:
In 2016, President Obama’s Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell ordered the BLM [Bureau of Land Management] to pause coal leasing on public lands, with a few exceptions, while the BLM completed an environmental review. In 2017, President Trump’s Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, revoked the order. In 2021, President Biden’s Secretary Deb Haaland rescinded Zinke’s order but did not reinstate the coal leasing moratorium or environmental review. In 2024, a federal appeals court ruled that the 2021 Haaland order reversed the Zinke order, while also ending the moratorium. The court said all actions after the Haaland order were moot and ordered all other court cases dismissed.
To provide clarity and certainty to the nation, the Bureau of Land Management is publishing a notice in the Federal Register that it will not perform an environmental impact statement, or any other environmental analysis of the federal coal leasing program connected to an order from former Secretary Sally Jewell, effectively and finally ending the last remaining open item related to the leasing moratorium.
The BLM will also reopen the federal lands in Montana and Wyoming to coal leasing.
“Under the current plans, future coal leasing is heavily restricted, making it much harder for new federal coal projects to get off the ground,” according to the Interior press release. “Over time, these plans could significantly reduce the availability of federal coal reserves in two of the country’s biggest coal-producing regions.”
The Office of Surface Mining and Enforcement will also slash regulations that have hampered the coal industry.
Energy
The Energy Department released its plans via X:
These actions will help modernize coal technologies, expand domestic critical mineral production and accelerate commercialization of mineral extraction technology, strengthening America’s energy and industrial security. They include:
Reinstatement of the National Coal Council: Members on the newly restated council will represent coal producers, users, equipment suppliers, state and local officials, and other stakeholders across the coal value chain.
Facilitating New Investment in Coal-Powered Electricity Generation: DOE’s Loan Program Office’s Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) Program is making $200 billion in low-cost, long-term financing available to invest in energy infrastructure, including coal.
Designation of Steelmaking Coal as a Critical Material and Mineral: In coordination with Interior, we are recommending the designation of coal used in steelmaking as both a critical material and a critical mineral in the upcoming 2025 Critical Materials Assessment.
Deployment of Mineral Extraction Technology from Coal Ash: National Energy Technology Laboratory has patented new technology to extract critical minerals from coal ash. This supports ongoing work to convert coal byproducts into high-value materials needed for use in energy, defense, and manufacturing.
Commercialization of Coal Ash Conversion Technologies: We are supporting commercialization efforts through partnerships with our National Laboratories and emerging companies.
EPA
🚨Today, @POTUS signed executive orders to reinvigorate America’s beautiful clean coal industry and unleash American energy! pic.twitter.com/gwRWBdW69r
— U.S. EPA (@EPA) April 8, 2025
“President Trump is delivering on the mandate Americans gave him last November by empowering different forms of domestic energy to drive down costs, increase domestic energy supply, and improve our grid security as we pioneer the path to become the Artificial Intelligence capital of the world,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.
“The Obama and Biden administrations deliberately tried to regulate coal out of existence. Under my leadership, economic growth and environmental stewardship are not mutually exclusive choices. We are committed to supporting all forms of energy, including clean beautiful coal, and have already taken steps to bolster America’s energy dominance and make energy affordable again while ensuring we have the cleanest air, land and water on the planet,” continued Zeldin.
The EPA press release listed all the plans it has in mind:
- EPA is reconsidering the Biden-Harris Administration’s regulations on power plants, commonly known as “Clean Power Plan 2.0.”
- EPA announced the agency will reconsider the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) from the Biden-Harris Administration that drew a lawsuit from 23 states.
- EPA is revising costly wastewater regulations for coal burning power plants issued in 2024.
- EPA is revisiting the Biden PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), which has raised serious concerns from states across the country and served as a major obstacle to permitting.
- EPA is reconsidering its implementation of the Clean Air Act’s Regional Haze Program.
- EPA expeditiously granted the Salt River Project’s Coronado Generating Station’s application for a deadline extension within a week of submission in consultation with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity.
- EPA announced it would take swift action to advance cooperative federalism and encourage states to pursue oversight and permitting of coal ash within their borders.
- EPA is reviewing the Legacy-Coal Combustion Residuals Management Units Rule.
- EPA rescinded its Guidance on the Preparation of Clean Air Act Section (CAA) 179B Demonstrations for Nonattainment Areas Affected by International Transport of Emissions, which made it unnecessarily difficult for states to demonstrate that foreign air pollution is harming Americans within their borders.
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Comments
Lefty lawyers already salivating over how much they’re going to charge the DNC to protest this. Is his plan to spread democrat resources so thin that they can’t get a decent city burning going this summer?
One thing he clearly did learn — the guy who owns the Treasury gets to force the other guy to play with his own money.
scaulen – I logged in just to give you a THUMB UP!! You are spot on about parts of the strategy – maybe two thirds – and the other benefits are well needed!!
Glad to see coal making a comeback …
… but this needs to be done by more than EO.
Why build a plant with a 40+ year lifespan when Democrats get elected back in after 12 years and add a bunch of regulations to bankrupt the industry again? And sue every day every step of the way?
Plants need to be approved in a way such that the government picks up the tab for new regulations and order plants are grandfathered in.
That way the worst Democrats can do is squander some tax payer dollars. It not impact electricity generation or true capital investments.
I’m glad to see the initiative but unless Mr. Trump takes a wrecking ball to the NGOs they’re going to tie him up in court forever. The NGO cabal is as dirty as an old diesel engine and needs to be reigned in.
America is on the move! Democrats, their judges and their lawyers hardest hit.
lefty: sure we could have a great country…but why?????
maga!!!
Last week Trump fired a leftist leading TVA.
TN’s two Senators said fire him and hire someone to build a nuclear power plant. Like get the permits NOW and start building NOW.
Why aren’t PA and WV building out pipelines for natural gas to east coast shipping terminals? There’s 100 year supply there waiting to be tapped in the marcellus shale. All those small towns could be booming.
Common sense and economic self-interest/pragmatism prevail over the vile, evil and stupid Dhimmi-crat apparatchiks’ cancerous, impoverishing, idiotic and national security-threatening “green”/environmental fanaticism and attendant diktats.
COal. LAFFRIOT.
Hey , I tolllllllld ya’s.
If coal is good enough for china and india to use it is good enough for us.
Oh, look, kids — the moron/fanatic who can’t spell or use proper grammar, is back. The village idiot with a brain smaller than a squirrel’s, and, intellect to match.
Glad to see he’s wearing his dunce cap.
It’s a pity his mother was knocked up by her grandfather but mistakes happen.
The one issue with this is if Democrats get in after 4 years, or 12 years, opt to rule by executive order, and decide that climate change is an emergency. America potentially faces radically instability in it energy sector and economy because of fundamentally exclusive visions for America.
It’s not a case of similar visions with slightly different angles, as was the case decades back, now there’s nothing in common and America risks needing 2 fundamentally different energy sectors – a wind, solar, and battery Democrat system, and a nuclear, coal etc system under Republicans. But who’ll build power stations, or power farms, when they know it may no longer be legal, or subsidised, after then next election?