February 12, 2026 -  President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday aimed at sustaining the United States’ coal industry through federal funding -- directing the Pentagon to purchase electricity from coal plants.

Trump, joined by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and a host of coal executives and hard-hat-wearing miners, touted coal as America’s most reliable and affordable energy source on Wednesday at what the White House dubbed “The Champion of Coal Event.”

"The most important people here today are those who get their hands a little bit dirty to keep America running at full speed," Trump said.

Trump has long promoted the domestic production of coal, which is a fossil fuel, calling it "the most reliable and dependable" form of energy that we have. During his remarks, the President joked that his administration has forbidden the use of the word “coal” without adding the words "beautiful, clean” before it.

The event featured the president receiving the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal” award from the Washington Coal Club, recognizing him as an advocate for coal power.

In the executive order, Trump directs the Department of War to enter into agreements to purchase electricity from coal plants to power military operations. The president said this action is aimed at "ensuring that we have more reliable power and stronger and more resilient grid power."

Trump also said he has directed the Department of Energy to distribute $175 million to fund upgrades at six coal plants in Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.

The announcement on Wednesday comes after Trump, in April 2025, signed an "Unleashing American Energy" executive order to expand the mining and use of coal in the U.S.

The action directed the Interior Department to facilitate coal leases for millions of acres of public lands. Trump's order also directed the Energy Department and other agencies to research whether coal could be used to supply electricity for artificial intelligence data centers.

Trump touts "beautiful, clean coal," but there's no such thing

Trump is correct when he says that coal is an abundant, energy-dense resource with a higher concentration in the U.S. than in any other country, but it is also a fossil fuel that emits carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) when burned, contributing to global warming and human-amplified climate change.

Coal emissions can also lead to health issues, including respiratory illness, lung disease, acid rain, smog, and neurological and developmental damage, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

While coal-fired electricity has become “cleaner than ever,” according to the U.S. Department of Energy, fossil fuel is still responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions and environmentally polluting coal ash. So “clean coal” is a bit of a misnomer, sometimes referring to technologies that physically clean coal before it is burned or to capture carbon related to its burning, according to Michelle Solomon, senior policy analyst at Energy Innovation.

"Burning coal could never be technically considered clean, regardless of the treatment applied to it before combustion – it will always emit the largest concentration of greenhouse gases of any fossil fuel, and soil and water pollution from coal and coal ash (what's left after it's burned) will never go away,” Solomon said. “Even the best technologies that reduce air pollutants like sulfur and nitrogen oxides still allow many of these to get through."

These technologies are also not widely used in the U.S. According to a December 2023 report from the Congressional Budget Office, 15 CCS facilities are operating in the United States. And none of them are being used at coal-burning power plants. The CBO also found that the 15 facilities can capture "0.4% of percent of the United States' total annual emissions of CO2."

According to the EIA, the most significant factor in recent reductions of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. has been the decline in coal usage. In 2022, coal-fired electricity generation was largely replaced by other sources, primarily natural gas and renewables. As the production of cleaner alternatives grows, the reliance on coal to meet the country’s energy needs diminishes.

The EPA says that “coal construction has significantly declined since the 1970s and 1980s, with no utility-scale coal construction occurring in the past decade.”

The EPA added that “As of 2023, coal generation is one-third of its peak level in 2007, while natural gas generation has more than doubled and wind and solar generation have greatly expanded, together increasing seven-fold since 2007.”

In 2023, coal accounted for about 16% of U.S. electricity generation, according to the agency. In 2000, it was more than 50%.