{"id":374347,"date":"2025-04-09T12:09:49","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T10:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=374347"},"modified":"2025-04-09T12:09:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T10:09:50","slug":"trump-goes-gangbusters-on-coal-power-and-coal-mining-to-supply-ai-energy-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=374347","title":{"rendered":"Trump goes gangbusters on coal power and coal mining to supply AI energy demand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Trump switches on the giant dormant coal infrastructure of the US<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the last twenty years 770 coal turbines have been switched off in the US, and Donald Trump wants to turn as many back on as he can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any moment now President Trump is expected to sign an executive order that will boost coal mining, keep old coal power stations running and restart shuttered coal plants. The word is that the US government will define coal as a \u201cmineral\u201d which allows him to use presidential wartime authority to speed up approvals for coal mines, and to bypass environmental red tape and even prioritize exploration and mining on federal lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US agencies will be told to rescind any policies that aim to \u201ctransition away from coal\u201d or \u201cotherwise establish preferences against using fossil fuels\u201d. The country with the largest known coal reserves in the world is now planning to increase coal exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore Trump will ask the Energy Department to consider whether coal should be listed as a \u2018critical mineral\u2019 \u2014 something described as a \u2018coveted status\u2019 which activates even more emergency powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shares of coal companies in the US are up 11 to 18%, and the whole Australian obsession with closing our plants suddenly looks like a quaint book club garden party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this will trigger the green brigade, they have nothing but the usual fantasies and wowser scoffing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[The Guardian<\/a><\/em>]\u00a0Energy experts say any bump for coal under Trump is likely to be temporary because natural gas is cheaper and there is a durable market for renewable energy such as wind and solar power no matter who holds the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except there is barely any market for pure wind and solar powe<\/a>r without truckloads of government subsidies. As soon as subsidies end, the solar panel companies go out of business.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And of course, the intellectual titans hope pure scorn and mindless indignation will scare people away like little teenage girls:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s next, a mandate that Americans must commute by horse and buggy?\u201d said Kit Kennedy, managing director of power at the Natural Resources Defense Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This changes everything<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As this news breaks, Australia is 3.5 weeks away from an election. We have the third largest coal reserves in the world and are often the world\u2019s largest exporter of coal. Despite this, we treat coal like it\u2019s kryptonite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time to break this spell. The last week of tariff turmoil has been tough for the conservative opposition here in the shadow of teetering stock markets, but this could flip that effect the other way, if the Coalition can peg the Government as being irrationally anti-coal, pointlessly out of touch, and still fighting the last war while the real world steams on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the golden opportunity for Peter Dutton. This is the moment when Australia could run industrial AI datacenters on the cheapest coal power in the world. Our brown coal plants are still winning wholesale bids at less than 3 cents a kilowatt<\/a> hour. We don\u2019t have to be just a quarry where people do raindances to control the weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump Order Seeks to Tap Coal Power in Quest to Dominate AI<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

By Ari Natter and Jennifer Dlouhy, Bloomberg<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump is moving to expand the mining and use of coal inside the US, a bid to power the boom in energy-hungry data centers and revive a flagging US fossil fuel industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The steps including emphasizing the US is back in the business of selling coal mining rights on federal land and ordering the rock be designated as a critical mineral. Other actions include accelerating the export of US coal and related technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the executive order underscores Trump\u2019s commitment to tapping America\u2019s coal resources as a source of both electricity to run data centers and heat to forge steel. The president and top administration officials have made clear boosting coal-fired power is a top priority, one they see as intertwined with national security and the US standing in a global competition to dominate the artificial intelligence industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coal advocates were cheering the planned action Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump wants to fix the electricity grid crisis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDespite countless warnings from the nation\u2019s grid operators and energy regulators that we are facing an electricity supply crisis, the last administration\u2019s energy policies were built on hostility to fossil fuels, directly targeting coal,\u201d said Rich Nolan, the president of the National Mining Association<\/a>. \u201cThe explosive growth and parallel energy demands of artificial intelligence and electrification have rendered that path not just unsustainable but plainly reckless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mining.com lays out how big the coal industry used to be in the US<\/a>. There is a massive skeleton of infrastructure Trump is working to revive:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coal accounts for about 15% of power generation in the US today, down from more than half in 2000, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Since 2000, about 770 individual coal-fired units have shuttered, according to data from Global Energy Monitor, with more set to close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No other major coal country is tying themselves into knots to keep the coal underground, or doing their best to stop using it. Australia is a basket case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image by Dorothe<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last twenty years 770 coal turbines have been switched off in the US, and Donald Trump wants to turn as many back on as he can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":374351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818216,691834352,691834353,691834354,691833487,691819121],"class_list":{"0":"post-374347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-coal-infrastructure","10":"tag-coal-reserves","11":"tag-election","12":"tag-us-president-donald-j-trump","13":"tag-wind-and-solar-power","15":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/014_Bild14_2017_Peabody_NARM_Haul_Truck-032-fe44d867f9cc782a.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1znR","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":418101,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=418101","url_meta":{"origin":374347,"position":0},"title":"Trump 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This continuation occurs because there is a lag for the Trump administration\u2019s policies to take effect due to the time it takes to enact legislation, phase in changes, and finalize new or modified regulations.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"AI data centers\"","block_context":{"text":"AI data centers","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=ai-data-centers"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPeRGIkoBkWx7C9TkV6XveP1qpCkO0Ybhf72DFCjvyh_NMrFBBw0xz-AhVJbkTiwvJwJmz2cR3aesB8bnnMTe-0ds_0MGt-l1js08KNmBCugitDQk3urHvCHghlHtzK-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPeRGIkoBkWx7C9TkV6XveP1qpCkO0Ybhf72DFCjvyh_NMrFBBw0xz-AhVJbkTiwvJwJmz2cR3aesB8bnnMTe-0ds_0MGt-l1js08KNmBCugitDQk3urHvCHghlHtzK-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPeRGIkoBkWx7C9TkV6XveP1qpCkO0Ybhf72DFCjvyh_NMrFBBw0xz-AhVJbkTiwvJwJmz2cR3aesB8bnnMTe-0ds_0MGt-l1js08KNmBCugitDQk3urHvCHghlHtzK-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPeRGIkoBkWx7C9TkV6XveP1qpCkO0Ybhf72DFCjvyh_NMrFBBw0xz-AhVJbkTiwvJwJmz2cR3aesB8bnnMTe-0ds_0MGt-l1js08KNmBCugitDQk3urHvCHghlHtzK-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPeRGIkoBkWx7C9TkV6XveP1qpCkO0Ybhf72DFCjvyh_NMrFBBw0xz-AhVJbkTiwvJwJmz2cR3aesB8bnnMTe-0ds_0MGt-l1js08KNmBCugitDQk3urHvCHghlHtzK-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":432199,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=432199","url_meta":{"origin":374347,"position":5},"title":"Coal Needs Boots on the Ground","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/18\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The coal industry is in a fight for its life. The forces arrayed against coal are many, varied and powerful. Supporters of coal \u2014 producers, consumers, suppliers, transporters \u2014 need to rally at the state and regional levels because that\u2019s where the fundamental decisions on coal power plants will be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"coal\"","block_context":{"text":"coal","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=coal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Coal-Needs-Boots-on-the-Ground1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Coal-Needs-Boots-on-the-Ground1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Coal-Needs-Boots-on-the-Ground1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Coal-Needs-Boots-on-the-Ground1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=374347"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":374353,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374347\/revisions\/374353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/374351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=374347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=374347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=374347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}