March 16, 2026 - President Donald Trump will unveil plans to use government funding and Pentagon contracts to sustain US coal-fired power plants as he seeks to drive domestic reliance on the fossil fuel.

The marquee initiative, set to be announced Wednesday, will come through an executive order, as Trump directs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to enter into agreements to purchase electricity from coal plants to power military operations, according to White House officials.

Although the Trump administration has previously contemplated using the Pentagon’s purchasing heft to bolster coal power — including by tapping special authorities in the 1950 Defense Production Act — this would be more targeted. Under Trump’s directive, the Pentagon’s energy installation office would pursue long-term agreements for that coal power, said the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss plans that weren’t yet public. 

The duration would set the contracts apart from short-term purchase agreements some buyers are using today, offering more demand and business certainty, they said. 

The president is also set to announce the Energy Department’s plans to distribute $175 million to fund upgrades at six coal plants in Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia, one of the officials said. The agency announced the available funding last year, casting it as a bid to improve the efficiency of some coal plants and extend their operations.

Trump’s remarks will come as the Tennessee Valley Authority moves to delay the planned retirement of two coal-fired power plants. Even before Trump took office, some utilities had sought to keep coal plants running longer that anticipated. That shift has only become more pronounced with support from Washington and surging electricity demand driven by the energy-hungry artificial intelligence industry. 

Trump has been an unabashed enthusiast for coal since his first presidential campaign in 2016, when he donned a helmet and pantomimed shoveling coal before pledging to a cheering West Virginia crowd that he would put miners back to work.

But Trump’s first-term efforts to revive mining largely stalled, especially amid a clamor in recent years for cheap natural gas and solar power and mounting concerns about global warming driven by the combustion of fossil fuels. Now, Trump’s support for coal is intertwined with his bid to both win an artificial intelligence race against China and assuage Americans’ concerns about rising electricity bills before the midterm elections in November. 

The planned Wednesday event evokes a ceremony Trump held with miners and energy industry leaders last April, when he signed a raft of measures meant to expand mining and domestic coal consumption. 

Beyond the pomp and circumstance at the White House, the Trump administration has moved to extinguish federal support for renewable power projects that compete with fossil fuels and ease regulations that hiked the cost of coal plant operations. 

At the same time, the Energy Department has issued emergency orders requiring some coal plants to keep running, and the Interior Department has moved to open more federal land for coal leasing in North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. 

Environmentalists criticized the planned moves, saying they would yield more pollution and could slow a shift to emission-free energy.

“This absurd misuse of public funds will lead to more air pollution, more asthma and higher electricity bills – all for ancient coal plants that barely work,” said Ted Kelly, a Director with the Environmental Defense Fund. 

The Environmental Protection Agency is also set this week to formally unwind a 2009 scientific determination about the perils of greenhouse gas emissions that provides the legal foundation for curbs on that planet-warming pollution. 

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that Trump would tout “clean, beautiful coal as America’s most reliable and affordable energy source, especially during periods of peak demand, just as we saw during this most recent winter storm.”

“The president will discuss how clean beautiful coal is not only keeping the lights on but also driving down the cost of electricity across our country,” Leavitt added.