June 8, 2026 - A new Trump administration grant program designed to increase the amount of electricity the country gets from coal could have impacts in Pennsylvania, the country’s third-largest coal producer.

The Department of Energy is invoking the Cold War-Era Defense Production Act, which grants the president authority over industry in cases of national security, to provide $700 million in grants to the coal industry “to expand and reinvigorate America’s coal fleet.” The program will also subsidize the construction of two new coal-fired power plants: one in West Virginia and the other in Alaska. Some of the money will help pay to complete a coal export terminal in Oakland, Calif., and restart a plant in Maryland. 

Though none of the facilities are in Pennsylvania, the White House says the state could see increased mining as a result, according to published reports. Mines in Pennsylvania feed some of the power plants that would benefit from the funding, according to federal data.  

“We are not only stopping the premature closure of our coal plants, but also taking steps to expand and modernize existing coal infrastructure,” Secretary of Energy Christopher Wright said in a statement. “These actions will help ensure affordable, reliable, and secure energy access for decades to come.” 

The move was cheered by the coal industry. 

“Coal generation shields consumers from the impacts of volatile energy prices and supply challenges,” said Rich Nolan, president and CEO of the National Mining Industry, a trade group. “The administration is supporting that strategy with decisive action at home to ensure that upgrades to existing energy assets are made, and at our ports to ensure that U.S. coal can answer the world’s needs.”

Impacts to Pa.’s air quality

The power plants tied to the money include two in West Virginia and one in Maryland. Their continued operation could impact air quality in Pennsylvania, said Tom Schuster, director of the Sierra Club’s Pennsylvania Chapter.

“We are downwind from the coal plants in the Ohio Valley and the lower Midwest,” Schuster said. “So we definitely expect to see more across-state air pollution from these plants the longer they stay online.”

Schuster said they also emit mercury, soot and nitrogen oxides, which form ozone, or smog. That could hurt air quality in Pennsylvania, which already has high levels of smog.

“The entire eastern seaboard, including Philadelphia, doesn’t meet federal standards for smog pollution,” he said. “Plants like these would directly contribute to that pollution.”

Schuster said the plants are big climate polluters. Coal is still the top carbon dioxide emitter in the U.S. electric sector, despite the fact that its use has declined. That’s because it releases twice as much carbon dioxide as natural gas when burned to make electricity. 

Carbon dioxide from burning coal and other fossil fuels is the principal driver of climate change. 

Coal once accounted for about half the country’s electricity. Now it’s around 17 percent, having been eclipsed by natural gas and facing competition from renewables. 

Last year, coal use actually increased, driven in part by electricity demand from data centers.

“We have much better options,” Schuster said. “And frankly, we are at the point where clean energy, wind and solar, and battery storage, and even in some cases geothermal, is cheaper and faster to deploy. So there’s really no reason for the federal government to subsidize this obsolete industry at taxpayer expense.”