U.S. President Donald Trump has inked four executive orders he said will reinvigorate the coal industry by attempting to classify the commodity as a mineral, and lift several regulatory barriers to coal that will open the doors to its expanded use once more.
The White House said Trump has directed the Chair of the National Energy Dominance Council to designate coal as a “mineral” under Executive Order 14241, entitling coal to all of the benefits of that prior order. It also will direct relevant agencies to identify coal resources on federal lands, lift barriers to coal mining, and prioritize coal leasing on those lands.
Trump has ordered the Secretary of the Interior to acknowledge the end of the Jewell Moratorium, a long-time outline which paused coal leasing on federal lands, and will require agencies to rescind any agency policies “that seek to transition the nation away from coal production or otherwise establish preferences against coal as a generation resource.”
A total of four new EOs also include directing CEQ to assist agencies in adopting coal-related categorical exclusions under NEPA, and said the new rules will seek to promote coal and coal technology exports, facilitate international offtake agreements for U.S. coal, and accelerate development of coal technologies.
Trump’s Secretary of Energy will take on the call to determine whether coal used in the production of steel meets the definition of a “critical material” and “critical mineral” under the Energy Act of 2020. If that is so, it will be added to those respective lists.
He additionally pointed out that, with the need for power to advance artificial intelligence, the EOs will help push for using coal to power new AI data.
Trump said he believes coal is essential to U.S. national and economic security.
“The coal industry supports hundreds of thousands of jobs and adds tens of billions to the U.S. economy each year. America’s coal resources are vast, with a current estimated value in the trillions of dollars,” he noted.
“Coal-fired electricity generation is cleaner than ever, yet the previous administration waged war on coal. Coal will be critical to meeting the rise in electricity demand due to a resurgence of domestic manufacturing and the construction of AI data processing centers.”
He pointed out that having support for the nation’s coal industry will increase the domestic energy supply, lower electricity costs, stabilize the grid, create jobs with high pay and also support “burgeoning” industries as we assist our allies worldwide.
Trump also stressed that the reinvigoration of clean coal, which he called part of the “liquid gold” elements of coal, oil and natural gas, and will fuel the nation in what he called an “unleashing” of American energy.
“We will also embrace nuclear, clean coal, hydropower, which is fantastic, and every other form of affordable energy to get it done,” he said.
The newly announced executive order follows Trump’s other moves on the energy front, including withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, revoking Biden executive actions that hampered American energy production; terminating the Green New Deal; cutting red tape to speed up the federal permitting process; and declaring a national energy emergency, among other things.
“An affordable and reliable domestic energy supply is essential to the national and economic security of the United States as well as our foreign policy,” according to the Protecting American Energy from State Overreach executive order.
“Simply put, Americans are better off when the United States is energy-dominant.”
Source: www.whitehouse.gov