Trump to Announce $700 Million to Bail Out Dying Coal Industry While Families Drown in the Energy Affordability Crisis He Created

In response to reporting confirming the Trump Administration will announce today that it plans to invoke the Defense Production Act and pour $700 million into upgrading 13 aging coal plants and building two new ones, Evergreen Action Executive Director Lena Moffitt released the following statement:

“Spending $700 million to bail out the coal industry is like throwing a lifeline to a ship that has already sunk. Donald Trump is handing out taxpayer money to coal barons and leaving us with nothing but higher energy costs. The market has already rejected coal as cheaper, cleaner alternatives continue to outcompete the most expensive, dirty fuel source. There’s no coal revival waiting around the corner—just polluters collecting a handout while their friends run the White House and Americans foot the bill.

“If Trump actually cared about delivering affordable, abundant energy, he’d stop sabotaging the cheaper, faster-to-build clean energy that could actually deliver it. Instead, he’s handing hundreds of millions to coal executives and leaving families with toxic air and higher bills while doing nothing to address the energy crisis his own administration created. Every dollar he hands to coal is a dollar stolen from the cheap, clean solutions that could get us out of this mess. This is corporate welfare for polluters, paid for by the working families already drowning in an affordability crisis of Trump’s own making.”

Coal is already one of the most expensive ways to generate electricity in America, and getting more expensive every year. Coal-generated power was 28 percent more expensive in 2024 than in 2021, with plant owners spending $6.2 billion more to generate the same electricity—costs passed straight to ratepayers’ bills. According to an analysis from the nonpartisan group Energy Innovation, 99 percent of coal plants in the U.S. are now more expensive to operate than replacing them with new local solar, wind, or energy storage.

One Michigan coal plant Trump has repeatedly forced to stay open offers a preview of what this bailout means in practice: retiring it was projected to save ratepayers roughly $600 million through 2040. Instead, Trump’s interventions have already saddled Michigan families with at least $113 million in unnecessary costs—$615,000 a day. That’s the math behind Trump’s coal bailout: Americans are paying higher bills so a few coal executives can keep collecting profits on an industry the market has already left behind.

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