By Emily Arthun, Chief Executive Officer, American Coal Council

Emily Arthun

July 31, 2025 - The Senate Finance Committee’s “American Growth Act” runs to more than a thousand pages and carries a ten year cost of roughly $3.3 trillion. Most attention has settled on its macroeconomic impact, but the line that matters most to America’s heavy industry supply chain takes just twenty one words: a production credit equal to six dollars for every short ton of metallurgical coal mined in the United States. That small, targeted adjustment is the most practical step Congress has offered in years to keep domestic steel competitive and to keep high wage mining jobs in states that still make things for a living.

Metallurgical—coking—coal is not interchangeable with the steam coal burned in power plants. It provides the fixed carbon that drives oxygen out of iron ore, creating liquid iron that is then refined into steel. Until there is a commercially proven alternative, every bridge girder, Navy destroyer, grain silo and data center rack must start with coke produced from coal. Hydrogen pilots show promise, but they remain years and billions of dollars away from displacing blast furnace output at scale. The practical choice today is whether that essential metallurgical coal—and the wages and taxes that accompany it—comes from Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Alabama and is used for integrated steel production here in the USA or it arrives already in the form of steel by vessel from foreign suppliers that often operate under weaker safety and environmental standards.

The United States produced about seventy million tons of coking coal last year. Prices peaked in 2022 and have since fallen by roughly one third, pushing some metallurgical coal mines into idling or reducing production. A six dollar credit on seventy million tons yields a gross annual outlay of four hundred twenty million dollars—roughly one tenth of one percent of the Act’s headline cost and a fraction of the thirty plus?billion in federal incentives that flow each year to wind, solar and battery projects. For that relatively modest sum, Congress secures an input that underpins the entire steel sector, supports more than twenty thousand direct mining jobs at average annual wages near $95,000, and stabilizes county tax bases that finance rural schools and first responder services.

Critics suggest the credit is a giveaway. That charge misreads both history and policy. Foreign competitors do not hesitate to subsidize their steel value chains. China’s central government provides low interest loans to state owned mines, discounted rail tariffs to coastal smelters, creates steel usage project whether needed or not and export rebates that keep product flowing even when global demand softens. Brazil offers accelerated depreciation and tax holidays for mine expansions south of Belo Horizonte. 

Against that backdrop, a small U.S. credit is less a subsidy than a defensive adjustment that narrows a cost gap created elsewhere. The measure does not guarantee profit; it merely restores the margin that market distortions have stripped away.

The Finance Committee’s language is intentionally narrow. The credit applies only to domestically produced metallurgical coal sold for coke production. Steam coal and export thermal sales do not qualify. The credit applies equally to union and non union operations, to surface and underground mines, and to federal, state, and private reserves. It does not lower safety standards, waive environmental compliance, or alter royalty formulas. All it does is reduce per ton cost at the mine mouth by about two and one half percent at today’s prices. For high volume long walls, that difference sustains continuous operation through price cycles; for smaller mines, it can decide whether to open at all.

The downstream benefits are substantial and immediate. When a mine remains open, railroads receive additional carloads, river barges keep pilots and deckhands employed, and export terminals in Norfolk, Mobile and Baltimore handle more throughput. Royalty payments on federal leases rise, sending fresh revenue to the U.S. Treasury and to producing states under the Mineral Leasing Act.

Equipment suppliers in Pittsburgh and Peoria book new orders; local diners keep morning coffee pots full for early shifts. None of this requires a new department, rulemaking, or mandate—just the insertion of a single line in the tax code recognizing the strategic nature of a critical mineral.

Policy also intersects with national security. A modern carrier battle group contains more than fifty thousand tons of steel; an Arleigh?Burke class destroyer about nine thousand. The Pentagon’s Defense Industrial Base Report notes that “secure domestic sources of coking coal are indispensable for surge readiness. Maintaining a robust domestic feedstock is not industrial nostalgia; it is basic prudence in an era that prizes resilient supply chains.

Economic development planners in Appalachia understand the stakes. In Nicholas County, West Virginia, a single idled met coal complex eliminated nearly fifteen percent of the local property tax base last year. The school board shelved plans to replace a fifty year old elementary roof; the sheriffs’ department deferred purchases of high mileage cruisers. Restoring production does more for community stability than any specialized federal grant because it generates private payroll and tax revenue every pay period. A predictable six dollar credit gives operators the confidence to maintain equipment and plan new sections even when export indices wobble.

The measure also contributes to grid reliability. Steelmaking is an around the clock, baseload process. By supporting domestic coke supply, not only do integrated steel producers' benefit, but also, the credit indirectly supports the electric arc furnaces and rolling mills that rely on predictable recycled steel feedstock deliveries and steady electricity demand profiles. That stability improves load forecasting for utilities and reduces the risk of price spikes during seasonal peaks.

Environmental impact merits candid discussion. U.S. coking coal mines operate under the toughest methane ventilation, dust control, and reclamation standards in the world. Methane capture projects are expanding in the Black Warrior Basin and the Central Appalachian Basin, contributing to greenhouse gas reductions beyond what many foreign competitors achieve. US met coal displaces tonnage that would otherwise be mined under looser oversight, resulting in a net environmental benefit while preserving American jobs.

The Finance Committee’s vote is a first step. The House must adopt identical language, and conference negotiators must resist efforts to dilute or redirect the credit. The Administration has indicated it will review the provision in the context of broader tax reform, but the case for final passage is straightforward. The credit costs pennies on the federal dollar, shores up a critical industrial input, and aligns energy policy with the manufacturing goals Congress articulated in the CHIPS and Infrastructure Acts.

Members whose districts host steel mills, auto plants, shipyards or heavy equipment manufacturers should recognize the logic. Steel cannot exist without coke; coke cannot exist without coal; and coal cannot be mined profitably if it operates at a structural disadvantage against subsidized foreign supply. The six dollar credit corrects that imbalance without distorting the broader energy market.

America’s industrial heartland has heard lofty promises before. What it needs now is one practical tool to keep people working and furnaces hot. This credit is that tool. It is limited in scope, measurable in effect, and easy to administer. If Congress is serious about rebuilding infrastructure, onshoring supply chains and securing strategic materials, it should let this provision stand.

No one in coal country is asking for special treatment. We are asking for recognition that a modern, technology driven nation still depends on steel, and steel still depends on coking coal. The “American Growth Act” acknowledges that reality. Enacting the credit will send a clear message that the United States intends to compete, build and grow with resources mined, refined, and manufactured here at home. That outcome serves miners, steelworkers and every American who expects a bridge to hold, a ship to sail, or a data center to process the next generation of innovation.