Trump Admin Looking to Restore Coal Plants as America’s Grid Buckles

Daily Caller News Foundation

Audrey Streb
DCNF Energy Reporter

The Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking to restore coal plants across America “for up to $100 million in federal funding.”

The DOE announced Friday that it issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity to restore coal plants across the U.S. to “design, implement, test, and validate three strategic opportunities for refurbishment and retrofit of existing American coal power plants to make them operate more efficiently, reliably, and affordably.” President Donald Trump has sought to bolster the American coal industry through an April 8 executive order, though the Biden administration cracked down on coal through stringent regulations in a move that several energy policy experts and one grid official warned could weaken America’s power grid.

“For years, the Biden and Obama administrations relentlessly targeted America’s coal industry and workers, resulting in the closure of reliable power plants and higher electricity costs,” said DOE Secretary Chris Wright on Friday. “Thankfully, President Trump has ended the war on American coal and is restoring common sense energy policies that put Americans first. These projects will help keep America’s coal plants operating and ensure the United States has the reliable and affordable power it needs to keep the lights on and power our future.” (RELATED: Trump Admin Moves To Demolish Biden-Era Coal Crackdown)

https://t.co/l5ooe9E6Qa

— U.S. Department of Energy (@ENERGY) October 31, 2025

The DOE has issued several emergency orders to keep coal plants humming as it has also sounded alarms over America’s grid. DOE’s July grid reliability report projected that blackouts could increase by a factor of 100 across America if the U.S. continues to phase out reliable power sources without adequate replacements.

While Trump has sought to boost coal and other reliable energy sources like nuclear, the Biden administration favored intermittent green energy sources like wind and solar in the name of combating climate change.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

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December 18, 2025 6:21 am

Hmmm, I wonder what liberals gnashing their teeth sounds like?

Sweet Old Bob
Reply to  Steve Case
December 18, 2025 6:31 am

Sen. S. from NY ?

drh
December 18, 2025 6:41 am

This is the way. China knows that to lead the world in AI, you need LOTS of power and now Trump is playing that game. Any future president that decides to kill power sources that feed AI technology will be committing political suicide. Get these things online ASAP.

drh
December 18, 2025 6:45 am

Story tip. AI used with weather models to improve forecasting by ECMWF. One data point: a full two weeks ago here in sunny SoCal a local meteorologist mentioned that the ECMWF predicted rain for sometime between 12-23 and 12-25. Now that we are less than a week out, the forecast is coming true, rain starts on 12-24 and into 12-25.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/artificial-intelligence-weather-forecasting

Reply to  drh
December 18, 2025 9:10 am

The saying goes that ‘even a broken clock is right twice a day’.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  whsmith@wustl.edu
December 18, 2025 9:38 am

The are mode of clock breakage that disallow that.

Even a stopped (12 hour) clock is right twice a day.

Reply to  Sparta Nova 4
December 18, 2025 11:50 am

And at very fine precision…a functional-but-tiny-bit-slow-or-fast clock is only right twice a day as well…. maybe once, maybe never….it’s how much of the time that it’s approximately right that’s important to most clock users.

MarkW
Reply to  Sparta Nova 4
December 18, 2025 6:47 pm

I had a digital wristwatch many years ago that decided that there was 100 minutes in an hour.

Michael Flynn
Reply to  MarkW
December 18, 2025 7:19 pm

That would be the “climate scientist” version? Just randomly define a minute to be whatever it felt like, say 60/100ths of something or other.

Reply to  MarkW
December 19, 2025 8:05 am

Did it also give the years in Stardates? 😎

22GeologyJim
December 18, 2025 6:52 am

Leftist opposition to hydrocarbons has always struck me as the ultimate delusion.
ALL hydrocarbons originate by living things using sunlight (solar energy) to combine CO2 from the air (sequestration) with water to make more complex molecules consisting of H, O and C atoms. The atomic bond between C and O stores a lot of energy that is later released in combustion.

And on and on. That is truly renewable.

To borrow a phrase, “It’s just simple organic chemistry”. Or some might say it’s a Gift from God/Gaia. Enjoy it!

sturmudgeon
Reply to  22GeologyJim
December 18, 2025 1:13 pm

Difficult to choose which of their delusions is ‘ultimate’.

Editor
Reply to  22GeologyJim
December 18, 2025 2:25 pm

At some time, we are going to want to add CO2 to the atmosphere so that plants grow better, deserts shrink, and we grow more food. But will we be able to stop the CO2 just disappearing into the ocean? Interesting times ahead.

Michael Flynn
Reply to  Mike Jonas
December 18, 2025 7:21 pm

. . . stop the CO2 just disappearing into the ocean?

Where it gets turned into carbohydrates or something by algae? Possibly no need for concern just yet.

December 18, 2025 6:53 am

Economics ended coal and dozy don can’t change that.

SxyxS
Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 18, 2025 7:17 am

MRNA Vaccines ended your brain and there is nothing you can do about it.

But I feel you, because you no longer can.

Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 18, 2025 7:52 am

Trouble in Communist paradise? Grift drying up? Don’t worry, you could learn to code.

Reply to  OR For
December 18, 2025 8:11 am

Don’t worry, I can do that already.
But tell me why he didn’t bring back coal the first time? He even put a hard hat on when he lied to you about bringing it back.

SxyxS
Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 18, 2025 8:52 am

Trump tried , and failed, just as he will this time.
Good news for the ambitious sociopath with the heart of gold – isn’t it?

Permanent lawfare from Blue States, existing contracts to phase out perfectly working power plants in favor of shitty uncompetitive energy(noone finances this shit as long as there is real competition)can not be nullified.
It takes years to built a power plant and they are supposed to run for decades = impossible to survive such a long timeframe with the rabid saboteur attitude of democrats.
Therefore almost all incentives to save let alone built plants will fail, as no matter how good the deal is – longterm planning is impossible because of people like you.
Therefore Challo Arizona will not be saved for the same reason he failed to save the Navajo Generating Station.

Reply to  SxyxS
December 18, 2025 9:00 am

Always someone else’s fault.
But if it’s true: Is Trump to stupid to understand how it works, or is he lying on purpose?

Mr.
Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 18, 2025 9:20 am

It’s just a feint to distract the enemy from his main move, which is to annexe Canada (/sarc)..

Lotsa gas to be had there, now that Justin got booted.

Haven’t you read Sun Tzu’s “The Art Of War”?

Reply to  Mr.
December 18, 2025 12:02 pm

No, the Canada and Venezuela things are to stop phentanyl. Don’t you read what he says ? Probably Iceland too, but that phentanyl flow from there is classified.

Reply to  DMacKenzie
December 19, 2025 6:01 am

I was shocked- after having hernia surgery last winter- when trying to learn about anesthesiology- that they have fentanyl on their list of drugs they may use, if needed. I recall waking up from surgery feeling high as a kite. They must have given me some. 🙂

Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
December 19, 2025 6:36 am

The doctors gave me Fentanyl for my angioplasty. My thought was “So it does have some legitimate uses”.
On an aside, what is the best thing to hear during an angioplasty? The Doctor saying, Oh there is nothing here. 😲 👍 😎

sturmudgeon
Reply to  Mr.
December 18, 2025 1:19 pm

Note, from his comments…he can’t read, or comprehend.

strativarius
Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 18, 2025 9:21 am

Is that your view or that of the Chinese government?

KevinM
Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 18, 2025 9:27 am

Your argument substitutes “lie” for “fail”. Both are bad, but they require different assumptions about why someone said something.

Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 18, 2025 10:08 am

“or is he lying on purpose?”

One can only lie on purpose. There is no such thing as an accidental lie. A lie is a deliberate act.

If a person genuinely believes what they are saying, they are not lying, rather, they are misinformed and are spreading that misinformation.

As far as I know, Trump has told no lies about coal.

SxyxS
Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 18, 2025 10:20 am

Duuuuude, please.

You still do not understand that AGW is a scam, but expect someone,
with very limited knowledge about extremely specific stuff(like phasing out power plants) knows from the get go what is going on in a field 99% of lawyers have no clue about?

Trump had so many wars to fight, be it MSM,Big Tech, Soros judges,resistance in his own party, a decaying economy,energy demand –
power plants were at the very fringe
and even the experts involved in this were caught by surprise how many obstacles have been put in place to make the reverse of the destruction of traditional energy impossible.
And this time they will make it better for sure,
but,
yet it is always easier to destroy than to built something, therefore it is literally impossible to win this game in the long run.

You know it, because everything you guys touch turns into shit.That’s something I said years before Trump because I spent many years with degenerated idiots like you
(therefore I am a recoveringdegenerated idiot too – a normal person realises within 5 minutes how insane and corrupt you Anti-Midas guys are)
– but there are certain advantages for minorities with an oriental religious background, as we, though we dispise all your values, are being treated like royalties thx to your reverse racism.

I guess now I try to repent for being so stupid to be wasting so many years with a bunch of either self destructive and/ or hedonistic morons who even with 30+ act like teenagers.
And yet again I’m an idiot wasting my time with a leftie.

George Thompson
Reply to  SxyxS
December 19, 2025 3:56 am

Yep.

KevinM
Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 18, 2025 9:22 am

“Sleepy Joe” worked because Joe often looked like he’d just gotten up from a nap. During the last couple years of his tenure, his characteristic small-town-fired-up-righteous-indignation fist pump started to look more like an expression of confusion than exuberance. Like “Where am I, man!”

“Dozy Don” does not work at all… yet.

CFM
Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 18, 2025 10:15 am

FYI – On this site, charged language and attempted slurs like “dozy” don’t work because these watchers understand data and facts.

Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 18, 2025 10:25 am

If your definition of “economics” = “government over-regulation and subsidizing of poor alternatives while specifically trying to bankrupt you” maybe.

Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 18, 2025 11:14 am

Yet even total Lusers are totally dependent on COAL, OIL and GAS for everything in their pitiful, dead-end little lives.

Coal has not ended… in fact, this year saw a record use of coal world wide.

Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 18, 2025 11:55 am

Look for coal mining magnate buddies at his table at Mar-a-Lago…

George Thompson
Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 19, 2025 3:54 am

No, Obama ended coal with the express purpose of making electricity far more expensive, with all of the unspoken ramifications of wrecking the economy. He said it himself that electricity would become much more expensive…remember that fact, not the made up BS about economics being the cause.

AlbertBrand
December 18, 2025 8:30 am

China has made great strides in coal fired plants efficiency. Here is where we can take advantage of some of their breakthroughs like >50 % efficiency. I read a while back of the great strides that have been made in coal burning. A number of the new coal plants there are replacing old ones which are much more efficient. They copied from us; it is now our turn to copy from them. Innovation is always more difficult than improvement. The U..S. excels in innovation which is why everything was always stolen from us.

Reply to  AlbertBrand
December 18, 2025 8:34 am

There’s a Paperclip telling a different story 😛

Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 18, 2025 11:21 am

Yet coal consumption hit another record in 2024.

Michael Flynn
Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
December 18, 2025 7:23 pm

Do you often listen to paperclips?

Reply to  AlbertBrand
December 18, 2025 9:28 am

Not only China, but India, Japan, and other countries which have the good sense to utilize coal in USC plants; while foolish Germans destroyed a 6 year old USC plant which was supporting their grid. How silly can you get? USC plants now reach over 50% efficiency, plus co-production which adds another 12-15%, so that two-thirds of the thermal energy is utilized in a base power plant which can operate 24/7 for 60 years. These achievements are impossible even to approach with wind and solar. The low efficiency, limited capacity, and unreliability of solar and wind is the product of their efficiency coefficient and the natural capacity factor, falling in the 10% range typically; AND, their operational life is short, 15-20 years at best. The truth is now exposed as electricity is scarce, unreliable, and very expensive in all countries depending upon ‘renewables’. Governments do not like to admit they were WRONG.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  whsmith@wustl.edu
December 18, 2025 9:44 am

Before someone else jumps at the bait, Trump does not like to admit he is wrong, when that rarity occurs. Neither do any member of Congress or State or local governments.

It is an innate characteristic of a politician. If they are wrong, they do not get elected.

mleskovarsocalrrcom
Reply to  whsmith@wustl.edu
December 18, 2025 10:06 am

“…foolish Germans destroyed a 6 year old USC plant which was supporting their grid…” and that wasn’t the only one destroyed. Those actions alone should have given people a clue what the real intention was: destroy the old that was working to implement the new that is unproven. It was a recipe for destroying manufacturing that was easy to see.

Reply to  whsmith@wustl.edu
December 18, 2025 10:15 am

“while foolish Germans destroyed a 6 year old USC plant which was supporting their grid. How silly can you get?”

The silliest episode with coal-fired power plants is what was done to the DRAX coal-fired power plant in the UK.

DRAX is sitting right on top of a coal mine, from which it derived the fuel to operate.

Then some genius in the UK government thought it would be a good idea to stop burning coal at DRAX, and instead, start burning wood pellets imported from the United States!

This is not even silly, it’s just downright stupid!

Reply to  Tom Abbott
December 18, 2025 11:23 am

This is not even silly, it’s just downright stupid!

Monty Python-esque-!!

Reply to  Tom Abbott
December 18, 2025 12:07 pm

The wood pellets have an enormous carbon foot print that starts with the heavy machinery with big diesel engines that bring waste wood from the forest to the pellet plant that uses energy that releases carbon dioxide. The pellets are then taken by trucks with diesel engines to port for export. A ship with a large marine engine burning diesel or bunker oil take the pellets to the UK. The pellets are off loaded to trucks with diesel engines which then take the pellets to the power plant.

Reply to  Harold Pierce
December 18, 2025 4:56 pm

Europeans have a fantasy that biomass will replace coal. Humanity finished the biomass experiment by 1800 and shifted to coal by1850, when coal became the major energy source. Biomass declined in importance until, now, it can yield only 5% of the energy required at our present population and living standard. The population can shrink to below 500 million and use biomass for a more or less medieval living standard. That is the apparent goal of the oligarchs. Coal is the bridge to a nuclear future, if we do not waste our opportunity to make an energy transition that adds up.

Reply to  whsmith@wustl.edu
December 19, 2025 1:16 am

“Coal is the bridge to a nuclear future, if we do not waste our opportunity to make an energy transition that adds up.”

The logical, practical thing to do.

MiloCrabtree
Reply to  Harold Pierce
December 19, 2025 2:54 am

I don’t think it’s waste wood; they’re flattening whole forests to feed DRAX.

Reply to  MiloCrabtree
December 19, 2025 6:59 am

Yes but the forest is declared wasteland first…to be used as a tree nursery for CO2 sequestration. It’s how you spin it to make your bucks.

December 18, 2025 8:55 am

It’s just common sense, IMHO.*
—————————
From the call for proposals* (FOMO dated 31-October; deadline 07-January) to obtain Federal support for three (3) kinds of ‘retrofit’ projects:

— fuel switching between coal and natural gas without compromising critical operational parameters.

— advanced coal-[NG] co-firing … highly fuel-flexible burner … to maximize gas co-firing capacity

— advanced wastewater management systems capable of cost-effective water recovery and other value-added byproducts [critical minerals]

Pursuant to this Executive Order (8+ months ago)

*’The-change-it-had-to-come; we knew it all along’

*”And I get on my knees to pray, we won’t get fooled again

December 18, 2025 9:07 am

Considering that coal is our largest available energy carrier, it is past time we built USC coal plants. Such plants nearly double the thermal efficiency. Half as many plants burn the same coal in twice the time. It is truly conservative. The coal plants last 60 years or more, while the solar/wind last 15-20 years. Renewable energy raises the total costs dramatically, as has been demonstrated in EVERY country taking that route. And, the coal plants can be co-located with the consumer, negating the grid expansion costing hundreds of $billions. Thermal plants’ ‘waste’ heat is, then, used for process heat, space heating, water heating, etc., increasing the efficiency even further. A win-win-win situation. Obama and the follow-on Democrat administration tried to OUTLAW coal, and put it out of business with the result that China ate our lunch.
Capiche?

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  whsmith@wustl.edu
December 18, 2025 9:45 am

You left out the environmental devastation inflicted by solar and wind farms.

sherro01
Reply to  whsmith@wustl.edu
December 18, 2025 1:27 pm

whs,
The US is getting there with modernised, dogma-lite coal policy from the top.
OTOH, my Australia is being wrecked, day by day, by politicians at our top whose minds are occupied with the diversion of 16 dead at Bondi Beach and how to avoid blaming dogma of the Muslim type so that fewest of their votes are lost in coming elections.
We are saddled with dogma-heavy politicians without the knowledge or the courage to fix the other problem of net zero carbon (whatever that means) leading to official status being bestowed upon groups of activist scientists who continue to assert in tricky ways that renewables energy is cheaper than hydrocarbon burning. Our voting public is not told by the pollies (on both traditional sides) of the selective types of incomplete costing of electricity alternatives instead of comprehensive, overall real life costs.
This is deception and it should be examined for criminal liability.
Geoff S
S

Bruce Cobb
December 18, 2025 9:15 am

There are two coal plants in New Hampshire, one in Portsmouth and the other in Bow. The Bow plant is still operating, but only on an emergency basis, which is really dumb, and expensive. The Portsmouth one has not been operating since 2020. The plan is to turn the Portsmouth plant into a system of batteries, and the Bow plant, slated to close by 2028 will become a combination of solar and batteries. The owner of the two plants, Granite Shore Power is committed to these plans.. I’m guessing it would take a sizeable amount of money, and perhaps political pressure to make them change their minds. Should be interesting.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  Bruce Cobb
December 18, 2025 9:46 am

I suspect the people, armed with pitch forks and torches, might be an influence.

Reply to  Sparta Nova 4
December 18, 2025 12:11 pm

Don’t forget to bring hemp rope!

Bruce Cobb
Reply to  Bruce Cobb
December 18, 2025 12:41 pm

The governor, Kelly Ayotte, who is a Republican unfortunately is one of those “All of the Above” morons. Her predecessor, John Sununu was in the same camp. I don’t know what it will take for Ayotte to see the light on this issue. The climate rot unfortunately has even infiltrated the Republican party.

strativarius
December 18, 2025 9:19 am

Malthusians drool over human suffering. Why is that?

We are a plague on the Earth. – David Attenborough

Edward Katz
December 18, 2025 9:32 am

Tis is a good idea because consumers, businesses, and industries want energy sources that actually work full time, not sporadically like wind and solar. Never mind how the latter will provide cheap and abundant power and save the planet into the bargain. Such a sales pitch has been been proved bogus for a number of years now and only the climate alarmists subscribe to it. The majority of the population have been recognizing it as a scam even before the Biden era.

sherro01
Reply to  Edward Katz
December 18, 2025 1:37 pm

EK,
We studied wind and solar electricity at the sites of remote new mines we discovered in Australia in the 1970-80 era. We knew of intermittency, modelled it and chose diesel every time.
Later, too-smart people closed their minds to inconvenient precedents like these and sent us down a crushing path of dynamiting productive coal burners to emphasise that we must “transition” to “renewables”.
There are limited ways for we “denialists” to combat undesirable traits such as anger, hate, ignorance, self-importance, deceit at the highest levels of our government. I, for one, will not give up before I die. Geoff S

December 18, 2025 10:27 am

Good. They should build new, modern coal plants too. Coal is best for baseload, along with nuclear, but can probably be brought on line quicker.

sherro01
December 18, 2025 11:30 am

This war on coal has been expensive for the US (and for my Australia). More large $$$ losses are yet to play out as sanity is restored.
Some of us scientists called out poor global warming/climate change science from the early 1990s, but we faced opposition like roadblocks to publishing and derogatory name calling like “denier”. Some of this opposition came from people who genuinely believed in a coming global crisis, while others were in it for the grift.
I endorse the identification of the main grifters, then examination of the criminality of their actions, followed by punishment if the evidence is clear.
We have to maintain principles of accountability of those profiting unfairly from the money flow created by demonizing coal. There is no historic precedent that lawfully rewards grift. The public tends to dislike loss of money from their own wallets to those of people taking money under false pretences. Geoff S

Michael Flynn
Reply to  sherro01
December 18, 2025 7:32 pm

There is no historic precedent that lawfully rewards grift.

How about politicians who pass laws that result in them getting paid more than the minimum wage? What ignorant and gullible political beauty contest winner deserves AUD $600,000 per annum? Oh, plus a host of other benefits, of course – even after losing an election.

Who cares? Not me, otherwise I’d do something about it, I suppose. Just call me lazy and apathetic.

2hotel9
December 18, 2025 11:49 am

First have to remove all of the regulatory strictures enacted by Obama and Biden Admins. Nothing will help until that is done, and not removing all that crap allows Democrats to continue blocking coal and gas power generation plants.

Bob
December 18, 2025 1:47 pm

More good news. Another step forward in efforts to undo crappy government policy.

December 19, 2025 8:39 pm

For those who think it’s too late for coal: “Peabody Energy: The consistent leader in U.S. coal production volume, also owning the nation’s largest individual coal mine (North Antelope Rochelle).” Their stock symbol is BTU. I bought shares last March $13.01/share. It closed at $30.87, today (it’s been as high as $35.99 since my purchase), up 137%. I know of no other energy company that has done better. Investors disagree about coal being a stranded asset.

I would take my profits and move on, but Peabody will be announcing the results of a study in January whether their mines have economically recoverable rare earths (they have rare earths, the question is how much is economically recoverable). If they do, the stock will bounce higher.

So those of you claiming renewables are overtaking fossil fuels, buy stocks in companies producing or installing renewables. Put your money where your mouth is. Let’s see who makes the most money.

Reply to  jtom
December 20, 2025 7:20 am

Moderators, please fix the hack involving the symbol. The problem is at your end, it seems.