Trump Uses Wartime Powers to Spend $700 Million Propping Up Coal

Wartime Authority for a Dying Industry

On April 20, 2026, Trump issued a presidential determination under Section 303 of the Defense Production Act declaring coal supply chains and baseload power generation capacity essential to national defense. The order covers coal mining, rail and barge logistics, export and domestic terminals, plant life-extension work, and on-site stockpiles.

The determination cited the national energy emergency declared in January 2025. It gives the Department of Energy authority to use DPA tools including direct purchases, purchase commitments, grants, and loan guarantees to support coal infrastructure.

On June 4, Trump announced the first implementation of that authority. $700 million in federal funding will go to coal plants, a new export terminal, and new plant construction across more than a dozen states.

Where the Money Goes

Funding	Amount	Source
13 existing plants in 10 states	$425M	Defense Production Act
Oakland export terminal	$75M	Defense Production Act
2 new plants (AK, WV) + 1 restart (MD)	$200M	DOE grants

The 13 plants span West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Arizona, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. The Alaska and West Virginia facilities would be the first new coal plants built in the United States since 2013. The Maryland plant is an AES facility that was shut down in 2023 because it was uneconomic to operate.

$185 million of the total was repurposed from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, originally allocated for carbon capture and storage projects.

The Oakland Terminal

$75 million will fund a coal export terminal at the former Oakland Army Base in West Oakland. The project has faced a decade of community opposition. The city passed an ordinance banning the handling and storage of coal.

West Oakland is a predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood where emergency hospital visits for asthma are 74% more frequent than the Alameda County average. Hospitalizations run 88% higher. A 2023 study found PM2.5 pollution from coal trains could cause lung disease, stroke, and premature mortality along the proposed rail corridor.

What It Costs Families

Coal provided 15% of U.S. electricity in 2024, down from 45% in 2010. Utilities are retiring coal plants because they lose money. Natural gas supplies 43% of electricity at lower cost.

An independent analysis by Grid Strategies found that if the DOE mandates coal plants scheduled to retire keep operating, the cost to ratepayers could reach $3.1 billion per year. If the mandate extends to additional aging plants, the bill could hit $6 billion.

The health costs are larger. Harvard researchers found that particulate pollution from coal carries double the mortality risk of PM2.5 from other sources. Between 1999 and 2020, coal plant air pollution contributed to 460,000 deaths in the United States.

When plants shut down, asthma attacks and emergency room visits drop measurably in surrounding communities. Keeping 13 plants running and building 2 more reverses that trend.

$3.1 billion per year is the projected cost to ratepayers if DOE mandates scheduled-to-retire coal plants keep running. $6 billion if the mandate covers additional aging plants.

Grid Strategies, commissioned by Earthjustice, EDF, NRDC, and Sierra Club, August 2025

Stretching Wartime Authority Into Energy Policy

The Defense Production Act is a 1950 law designed to ensure production of goods essential to national defense during genuine emergencies. Using it to subsidize a power source that provides 15% of electricity and costs more than every alternative sets a precedent for channeling wartime authority toward any energy sector the administration wants to support, regardless of what the market says.

Tyson Slocum, energy director at Public Citizen, called it “abusing emergency authorities and wasting taxpayer resources through unprecedented abuse of the Defense Production Act to promote his politically favored fossil fuel projects.”

Ted Kelly, director at the Environmental Defense Fund, said “pouring taxpayer dollars into dirty, unreliable coal plants that bleed money is a surefire way to drive up families’ electricity bills even higher.”

What You Can Do

Write your senators and representative through Resist Bot and demand congressional oversight of DPA spending on fossil fuels. The Defense Production Act was not designed to prop up industries the market has abandoned.
Contact the Department of Energy and oppose the use of bipartisan infrastructure law funds for coal plant construction. The DOE public comment process is the direct channel for grant objections.
Support Oakland’s fight by following No Coal in Oakland and contacting the Bay Area Air Quality Management District about coal dust regulations.
Track the legal challenges through Earthjustice and the Baker Institute’s DPA analysis, which examines whether this use of emergency authority will survive judicial review.