February 4, 2026 - For example, in October, US DOE issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for up to $100 million in federal funding for projects aimed at refurbishing and modernising the USA’s existing coal power plant fleet. It follows the Department’s September announcement of its intent to invest $625 million to expand and reinvigorate America’s coal industry.

US DOE says the October initiative aims to “support practical, high-impact projects that improve efficiency, extend plant lifetimes, and improve performance of coal and natural gas use.”

“For years, the Biden and Obama administrations relentlessly targeted America’s coal industry and workers, resulting in the closure of reliable power plants and higher electricity costs”, said US Energy Secretary Chris Wright. “Thankfully, President Trump has ended the war on American coal and is restoring common sense energy policies that put Americans first. These projects will help keep America’s coal plants operating and ensure the United States has the reliable and affordable power it needs to keep the lights on and power our future.”

The latest effort is described by US DOE as supporting two Trump executive orders, Reinvigorating America’s beautiful clean coal industry and Strengthening the reliability and security of the United States electric grid, and “advances his commitment to restore US energy dominance.”

The October NOFO seeks applications for projects to design, implement, test, and validate three strategic opportunities for refurbishment and retrofit of existing American coal power plants to make them operate more efficiently, reliably, and affordably:

• Development, engineering, and implementation of advanced wastewater management systems capable of cost-effective water recovery and other value-added byproducts from wastewater streams.
• Engineering, design, and implementation of retrofit systems that enable fuel switching between coal and natural gas without compromising critical operational parameters.
• Deployment, engineering, and implementation of advanced coal/natural gas co-firing systems and system components, including highly fuel-flexible burner designs and advanced control systems, to maximise gas co-firing capacity to provide a low cost retrofit option for coal plants while minimising efficiency penalties.

DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, under the purview of DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy, will manage projects selected under the NOFO, says US DOE. The application deadline is 7 January 2026, 5:00 PM ET.

The September announcement earmarked $625 million to “boost energy production and support coal communities nationwide.”

“Beautiful, clean coal will be essential to powering America’s reindustrialisation and winning the AI race,” said Chris Wright, announcing the funding plan. “These funds will help keep our nation’s coal plants operating and will be vital to keeping electricity prices low and the lights on without interruption. Coal built the greatest industrial engine the world has ever known, and with President Trump’s leadership,
it will help do so again.” 

The $625 million was broken down as follows:

• $350 million for coal recommissioning, and retrofit: for projects to demonstrate readiness to recommission or modernise coal power units and provide near-term electric power reliability and capacity.
• $175 million for rural capacity and energy affordability projects: for coal power projects that provide direct benefits of energy affordability, reliability, and resiliency in rural communities.
• $50 million to support the development and implementation of advanced wastewater management systems: to demonstrate scalable, cost-effective wastewater management systems that enable coal plants to extend their service life, reduce operational costs, and enhance commercial byproduct recovery.
• $25 million for engineering and implementation of dual firing retrofits: to enable coal power plants to seamlessly switch between fuels, achieve full steam capacity, and economic flexibility to extend plant lifespans.
• $25 million for development and testing of natural gas cofiring systems: to support investments that will maintain boiler efficiency and reliability when utilising 100% natural gas.

US DOE had previously made several other announcements and taken initiatives supportive of the US coal industry.

On 8 April 2025 the Energy Department announced a series of actions it was taking to “unleash American coal production” via the Reinvigorating America’s beautiful clean coal industry executive order (14241).

This called for Secretary Wright to take action necessary to “accelerate the development, deployment, and commercialisation of coal technologies.”

The Secretary of Energy and Secretary of Interior were required to determine whether coal used in the production of steel is defined as a “critical mineral,” and if so, take steps to place it on DOE and DOI’s critical minerals lists.

The executive order also called to have coal designated a “mineral” by the National Energy Dominance Council, which is led by Secretary Burgum and Secretary Wright.

Within 60 days of the order, coal resources and accessibility on federal lands were to be assessed and in addition, coal leasing was to be expedited and barriers lifted that were hampering to coal mining on federal lands.

The order also called for support of American coal exports, promotion of opportunities for coal and coal technologies, and the facilitating of international offtake agreements for US coal.

Within 60 days of the order, it was also required that locations be identified where coal-fired power can be used to support AI infrastructure and data centres.

On 23 May, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright did indeed announce the designation of metallurgical coal as a critical mineral, in accordance with executive order 14241.

Campbell Plant

Also on 23 May, and on 20 August, Secretary Wright issued what were described as “emergency orders to minimise the risk of blackouts and address critical grid security issues” in the Midwestern region of the United States. In particular, the orders directed the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO) and Consumers Energy Company (the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy) to “take all measures necessary” to ensure that the J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant in West Olive, Michigan remained available to operate. 

As a result of the two orders, says the US DOE, the Campbell Plant was available to generate large amounts of electricity during the summer 2025 heat wave and “continues to remain a critical asset to maintain reliability in the Midwest.” Prior to the Energy Secretary’s orders, the Campbell Plant was scheduled to be shut down on 31 May 2025.

This shut down date was specified in the Consumers Energy Clean Energy Plan of 2021, which envisaged that Consumers Energy would stop using coal as a fuel source for electricity generation by 2025, making the company one of the first in the USA to go coal-free.

The 2021 plan was an update of Consumers Energy’s original 2018 Clean Energy Plan, introducing the pledge to accelerate the elimination of coal to 2025.

The plan called for closure of all three units at the Campbell plant in 2025 in addition to two units at the D.E. Karn coal plant, which were shut down in 2023 (as per the 2018 Clean Energy Plan).

The orders for the Campbell power plant to keep operating, issued in May and August, each required 90 days of operation. The second order expired on19 November 2025.

Garrick Rochow, CEO of Consumers Energy, has commended the workforce for its flexibility, with many having their retirement plans disrupted. He said the company “continued to see orders from the Department of Energy” and “we expect those to continue for the long term, and we’re prepared to continue to operate the plant and comply with those orders.” He also noted that the US DOE has “laid out a clear path to cost recovery.”

Not surprisingly, public interest groups have been strongly opposed to what they describe as the illegal emergency orders forcing the Campbell plant to operate beyond its planned retirement date.

The Environmental Defense Fund, for example, said the Trump administration was forcing “the aging, dirty coal power plant to continue burning coal even as the electricity is not needed” and pointed to new financial filings from Consumers Energy that reported “a net loss of $80 million through Sept 30” by keeping the Campbell coal plant in operation.

“The Trump administration is running up people’s electricity bills for an old, polluting coal plant that barely works,” said Ted Kelly, director and lead counsel for US clean energy at the Environmental Defense Fund. “What’s outrageous is that after the Department of Energy called the coal plant essential for reliable power this summer, it ended up breaking down. The grid had more than enough electricity needed to deliver reliable power to homes without this unnecessary, costly mandate. So why continue to keep it open?”

The Environmental Defense Fund claims that in June, when US DOE says that electricity from the Campbell coal-fired plant was needed, there was a surplus of available resources more than ten times the amount of power being provided by Campbell, according to data from the regional TSO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO)). When demand peaked on 23 June, only one Campbell unit was even producing power, the Environmental Defense Fund alleges, “as another unit had been broken for weeks and the third abruptly shut off when it was supposedly “critical” to maintaining reliability.”

“These old fossil plants are scheduled to retire for a reason – they’re expensive, dangerous to our health and prone to equipment failures,” Kelly said. “Families and businesses shouldn’t have to pay out of their pockets to keep them on life support when more reliable, cheaper and cleaner energy options exist.”

A report from consultants Grid Strategies has estimated that if the Trump administration continues these mandates to keep aging coal power plants online, it could cost US electricity consumers as much as $6 billion per year.