Breaking down the Trump admin’s coal revival

 

The Trump administration is pulling out all the stops to support dirty coal. Here’s what you need to know. The Trump administration announced dangerous plans late last month to open 13.1 million acres of public land for coal mining and make it cheaper for coal companies to mine, cost taxpayers $625 million to upgrade aging coal plants, and delay pollution safeguards on wastewater and emissions. See NRDC’s response to this dangerous move. We’ve laid out all the steps this administration has taken that led us to this latest crisis for our public health and our climate — and how NRDC is resisting going back to our oldest and dirtiest energy source.

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Coal was already on its way out — too dirty, too expensive, and too unreliable to meet today’s energy needs. Yet the Trump administration is working overtime to drag us backwards, propping up an obsolete energy source and putting our health and wallets on the line. The timeline: March - April 2025 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin invited coal companies to simply email in requests for exemptions from clean air standards. Shockingly, 71 coal plants across 23 states were granted two-year passes to ignore limits on hazardous pollutants like mercury, a potent neurotoxin. What this means for you: Communities near these plants — often low-income and communities of color — will breathe dirtier, more dangerous air. What NRDC is doing: NRDC filed a lawsuit alongside 11 other environmental and community groups to overturn the Trump administration’s illegal move to exempt coal-fired power plants from complying with lifesaving air pollution limits under the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS). Learn more about why we sued the Trump administration for allowing coal plants to ignore Clean Air Act standards. May - August 2025 Instead of allowing a polluting and outdated coal plant in Michigan to retire on May 31 as planned, federal officials forced the utility to keep it open — overriding state and local decisions. The administration claimed “grid reliability,” but really it’s just another bailout for coal. What this means for you: Communities that wanted this plant closed face prolonged pollution exposure and increased risks of asthma and heart disease. And consumers could pay $3–$6 billion more per year in higher electric bills to keep this and other old fossil fuel plants running past their retirement dates, even though cheaper, cleaner replacements are ready to take their place. What NRDC is doing: NRDC and other public interest groups challenged the administration’s forced illegal extension of the Michigan coal plant’s operations. And when the administration issued another illegal extension in August, NRDC and our partners immediately filed a challenge with the Department of Energy — bringing us one step closer to filing a lawsuit if the administration doesn’t back down. Read more about how keeping the Michigan coal plant open will drive up costs, hurt Michiganders’ health, and prevent Michigan from reaching its clean energy goals. September - October 2025 This brings us to the administration’s most recent brazen moves yet. The Department of Interior, Department of Energy, and EPA released a plan that amounts to giving coal a free pass and free cash. What this means for you: More of your public lands are now open for coal mining. This means your rivers, streams, and lakes run the risk of being sullied by toxic runoff from coal mining operations. Rollbacks on wastewater and pollution standards for coal power plants threaten the water we drink and the air we breathe. Coal power pollution killed 460,000 people between 1999 and 2020; but 85 percent of those deaths occurred before 2007 and before these standards started. You're the one paying the price for this dirty energy source. A recent analysis shows that 99 percent of coal plants are more expensive to run than renewable energy. That means higher bills for you. Investing in fossil fuels of the past means less investment in reliable clean energy. As energy demands increase, we won’t be able to keep up without solar and wind. So that could mean lights out for you during extreme weather. What NRDC is doing: NRDC is assessing our legal options for how we can stop these moves. And we’ll be reaching out to members like you to contact your local, state, and federal lawmakers to stop these reckless rollbacks. Read more about why the Trump administration’s attempts to bring back coal are destined to fail — but will cause pain for the rest of us as the administration prolongs its death. We are appalled at the lengths the Trump administration will go to waste so much money keeping such an outdated and dangerous industry on life support. We have plenty of clean and affordable energy projects waiting for the green light to get connected to our electrical grid. And all of these projects combined are necessary to meet U.S. energy needs — and then some. This means more reliable energy, at a lower cost, and with less of an impact on our environment. And NRDC won’t stop advocating and litigating until we have it. Sincerely, NRDC  Donate

The mission of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.

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