January 9, 2026 - Executives from the nation’s largest coal producers — Peabody and Core Natural Resources — have been tapped to head the newly revived National Coal Council and advise the Energy Department on all things fossil fuels, according to internal agency documents viewed by POLITICO’s E&E News.

Jim Grech, president and CEO of Peabody Energy, will chair the council, and Jimmy Brock, CEO of Core Natural Resources, will serve as the council’s vice chair, the documents state. When asked for comment, DOE said the council’s membership has not been publicly announced.

The Trump administration last year formally reinstated the council, an advisory group focused on fossil fuels that existed for more than three decades before lapsing under the Biden administration. The group is slated to hold its first meeting later this month.

President Donald Trump has moved quickly during his second term to revive the nation’s beleaguered coal industry, from inking executive orders to requiring coal plants to remain online in states like Indiana, Colorado and Michigan. Trump has also designated metallurgical coal as a critical mineral, opened large swaths of federal land to coal leasing, and has moved to offer hundreds of millions of dollars to revive and recommission existing plants.