January 6, 2026 - Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Andy Barr unveiled his plan Monday to jumpstart Kentucky’s beleaguered coal industry by fostering artificial-intelligence infrastructure.

The Bluegrass State is ripe with resources AI data centers need to outpace foreign competitors, and coal-fired energy is the backbone of that strategy, Barr told reporters at a press conference in Harlan County Monday morning.

Barr trails former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron in a crowded GOP primary race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. The 13-year congressman is trying to distance himself from Cameron and others by firmly embracing Kentucky’s coal-mining heritage and pledging to lead its return.

Monday, at an appearance at a mine in Lynch, he criticized Cameron for backing the closure of a coal-fired power plant as attorney general in 2021 and accused Lexington entrepreneur Nate Morris, who has also entered race, of embracing “the radical climate agenda.”

“When it comes to who is going to actually stand for coal, there’s only one candidate for United States Senate who has a plan,” Barr said at a podium flanked on both sides by Eastern Kentucky miners.

The Cameron campaign responded to Barr’s jabs Monday, saying the congressman is not a true conservative. Cameron supported the closure of the Mitchell Power Plant, co-owned by Kentucky Power, in 2021 because it employs no Kentuckians and does not provide any “economic value to the Commonwealth,” campaign manager Nathanael Hirt told the Herald-Leader in an emailed statement.

Although there are no active coal mines in Barr’s legislative district, which includes Lexington and much of the surrounding area, Barr has been an outspoken supporter of Kentucky coal since he was first elected in 2012. His pro-coal stance helped him curry favor with President Donald Trump, who campaigned for Barr in 2018 against one of his first real challengers, former Marine pilot Amy McGrath.

Last month, Trump’s own support of the coal industry came into sharper focus when he ordered the U.S. Department of Energy to stop the imminent shuttering of two Indiana power plants and delayed enforcing new rules that would require the facilities to prevent toxic chemicals from leaching into drinking water sources.

Barr authored a package of legislation over the summer aimed at unlocking new domestic markets for Kentucky coal by prioritizing coal waste recycling efforts and fast-tracking coal companies for federal defense funding.

“We have to revive coal for national security, not just jobs and prosperity of the people of Eastern Kentucky, but because we’re in a race for the technologies of the future and dominance in those technologies,” Barr told the Herald-Leader shortly before Monday’s event. “We need to pay attention to what China is doing with AI, and we need to maintain a qualitative edge.”

American chip manufacturer CEO Jensen Huang made headlines in November when he said China is “nanoseconds behind America in AI,” yet the U.S. has overregulated the industry while China “guarantees baseload power for AI” by approving roughly two new coal-fired plants every week, Barr said.

Kentucky is uniquely situated to take advantage of U.S. investments in AI because of its existing coal-fired production infrastructure, plentiful water resources, skilled workforce and centralized location, Barr contends. That gives the state an edge over others where it is cheaper and easier to mine.

Barr’s coal-first energy plan would also force regulators to tamp down on companies prioritizing environmental, social and corporate governance factors on Wall Street. 

“ESG,” as it has become known, has become a political flashpoint among Republicans on Capitol Hill who are eager to stem the flow of investments into clean-energy alternatives they believe are ill-suited to replace safely reliable coal and natural gas.

In 2013, Barr acknowledged to reporters “coal does contribute to climate change,” but he insisted it is better for it to be used in the U.S. than shipped to other countries with poor environmental records.

Barr is a member of the Conservative Climate Caucus, which openly agrees with the global scientific consensus that “the climate is changing” and acknowledges the “global industrial era” has contributed. But the caucus also believes China is the greatest immediate obstacle to curbing global emissions and says fossil fuels “can and should be a major part of the global solution.”

Prior presidential administrations have intentionally redirected money away from coal-mining and coal-fired production enterprises by weaponizing financial regulators, Barr said. The result has been a shortage in innovation that would make the U.S. a leader and exporter of cleaner, coal-fired technology, he said.

“If you really care about the environment, you would spend more, not less,” he told the Herald-Leader. “You would not divert capital away from this industry. You would put more and invest in it.”

The congressman spent Monday morning touring a former coal mine in Lynch and meeting with representatives from the mining industry around Cumberland.

Bluegrass Natural Resources, which operates three underground metallurgical coal mines in Kentucky, sent several dozen miners to meet with Barr before the press conference.

Chief operating officer Don Hacker told the Herald-Leader his company has rights to more than 400 million tons of coal in and around Black Mountain, the state’s highest point in Southeastern Kentucky and a hotbed for coal used in the steelmaking industry.

Half of that minable coal is steam coal used for energy production, but the company is not extracting any of it right now because demand is too low, Hacker said. Since 2009, he said, the company has had to lay off at least 2,000 miners.

“You bring some of those data centers and some of those power plants, we’d probably give them the property to put them on and provide the coal,” he said. “You bring some of the jobs that he’s talking about here, and we’ll supply the coal.”

Coal-fired energy is more expensive than clean-energy alternatives, according to new research commissioned by a group of Kentucky environmental advocacy organizations and released last month. That research has gone head-to-head against a coal consulting firm’s study cautioning against the “premature” retirement of coal plants ahead of a General Assembly session set to get underway in Frankfort, where consumer pricing is expected to take center stage.

AI computation is highly energy-intensive and requires processing units to run continuously, often for months at a time. That drains the power grid, increases reliance on water for cooling and runs the risk of skyrocketing harmful emissions.

Firm McKinsey & Co. predicts data centers could consume nearly 12% of all U.S. electricity by 2030.