Can President Trump Really Revive U.S. Coal?

It is no secret that Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden did everything in their power to end America’s coal industry while they were in office. The “Clean Power Plan” formally invoked by the Obama EPA in 2015 set off an unprecedented wave of coal plant retirements which continued through the first Donald Trump presidency and into the Biden Administration (see chart below).

Altogether, about 40% of the existing U.S. coal fleet in 2010 had been retired by the end of 2024, with more retirements projected in the coming five years. The power source which had provided about 50% of U.S. power generation in 2000 fell to just 15% in 2024.

To environmental activists, the systematic deconstruction of America’s coal industry was a beautiful thing, a way to meet emissions goals set under the Paris Climate Accords. But officials in this second Trump administration, including the President himself, see it as a waste of an enormously valuable resource given that U.S. coal reserves far exceed those of any other nation on earth.