On September 29, local time, the U.S. Department of Internal Affairs said it would open 13.1 million acres of federal land for coal mining. This move would boost the U.S. economy, protect national security and increase jobs across the U.S. during the same period, the U.S. Department of Energy said it would invest $6.5 billion to boost the U.S. coal industry, aimed at increasing energy production and supporting the coal community across the U.S.
U.S. Energy Secretary Wright said the funding would help operate coal-fired power plants that are critical toining electricity prices and power supply and that coal has once built the world’s greatest industrial engine, and it will play an important role again.”
The U.S. Department of the Interior also announced that it would expand U.S. coal leasing to more than triple the size required by Trump's "Beautiful Act", reduce coal royalties and simplify the approval process for local projects in Wyoming, Tennessee and elsewhere.
This series of policies is based on the increasing power supply challenges facing the United States.In the past two decades, U.S. demand for electricity has slowed down due to increased energy efficiency, but U.S. demand for electricity has surged with the development of electrification and data centers.
In 2024, U.S. electricity consumption increased by 2%, reaching 4089 TWh (TWh). According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA), electricity consumption will continue to climb to record highs in 2025 and 2026. The core force driving this growth is the explosive development of artificial intelligence and data centers. The U.S. Department of Energy predicts that data center electricity demand will grow at a rate of 13% to 27% per year from 2023 to 2028, and that by 2028, its electricity consumption could account for 6.7% to 12% of U.S. total electricity demand.
Rapid growth in power demand has put pressure on the grid. The North American Electric Reliability Association (NERC), the U.S. power regulator, has warned that the North American power grid will face "serious reliability challenges" as power generation cannot keep up with growing demand for artificial intelligence.
In this context, the Trump administration has prioritized the promotion of coal-fired power generation. However, this policy has been strongly opposed by environmental organizations. The U.S. environmental organization says the practice is supporting “old, heavily polluted, uncompetitive coal-fired power plants and putting people at high costs and pollution.”
Ted Kelly, director of clean energy at the Environmental Defense Fund, said: “We need modern, affordable clean energy to drive the modern economy, but the Trump administration wants to drag us back to the 1950s.”
According to foreign media reports, coal once provided more than half of U.S. electricity production, but its share dropped to about 15% in 2024, down from about 45% in 2010, in addition, natural gas provides about 43% of U.S. electricity, with the rest coming from nuclear and renewable sources such as wind, solar and water.
Specifically, U.S. coal production capacity is continuing to decline, and coal-fired power generation capacity is also accelerating.According to EIA data, U.S. coal production in 2024 will be 4,64 billion tons, down 11.4% compared to 2025, coal production is expected to decline 6.9% compared to 2025, and coal production in 2026 is expected to remain equal to 2025.
EIA data shows that the United States will retire 4 gigawatts of coal-fired power generation capacity in 2024; the planned coal-fired power generation capacity in 2025 is 8.1 gigawatts, accounting for 66% of the planned decommissioning power generation that year; in 2026, the U.S. power sector's coal power generation will be reduced by another 2%.
It is worth noting that U.S. energy analysts believe that although environmental regulations put some pressure on the coal industry, the underlying reason for its decline is economics. According to the U.S. think tank Energy Innovation, U.S. coal power has been economically outperformed by renewable energy, and 99% of coal-fired power plants are much more expensive than building a new solar or wind power plant.
U.S. energy experts have mentioned that any coal shock under Trump could be temporary because natural gas is cheaper and there is a lasting market for renewable energy such as wind and solar power no matter who runs the White House.