This story was originally published on Truthout on Feb. 12, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump ordered two executive branch departments to take actions that would increase the use of coal in the United States, despite fossil fuels becoming an obsolete form of energy production that is devastating to the health of the planet.
Under his plan, intended to bolster the dwindling U.S. coal industry, the Department of Defense would purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants. Meanwhile, the Department of Energy will be doling out $175 million in upgrades for six coal plants in coal-rich states, including Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Trump announced his plans while hosting an event at the White House, where he also received an “Undisputed Champion of Coal” award from a coal-based special interest group.
“I will sign an executive order that directs the Department of War [sic] to work directly with coal plants on the new power purchasing agreements, ensuring that we have more reliable power and stronger and more resilient grid power, and we’re going to be buying a lot of coal through the military now,” Trump said during the event.
The president’s executive order, which cites a so-called “national emergency” on energy he signed at the start of his second term, also described increasing the use of coal as “a matter of national security, strategic deterrence, and American energy dominance.”
Experts have decried Trump’s claims that there is an energy emergency.
“We’re the world’s number one exporter of oil and gas, and we have an energy emergency? What is this based on?” Natural Resources Defense Council senior attorney Gillian Giannetti said last year, when the national emergency was first declared. “There isn’t a there, there.”
Coal is considered to be the dirtiest of all fossil fuels used for electricity generation. It produces twice the amount of carbon dioxide, a noted greenhouse gas, than natural gas does, and moves the country further away from pursuing renewable energies, which are fast becoming cheaper sources of energy, not to mention undeniably cleaner and better for the planet overall.
Coal use has also been reduced over the past two and a half decades, going from around 50 percent of all electricity generation at the start of the century to just 17 percent last year.
Coal energy is much deadlier than other forms of production. A study published in Science in 2023 concluded that coal plants in the U.S. were responsible for nearly half a million deaths between the years 1999 to 2020.
That number is likely an undercount, as the study only examined deaths that were the result of coal “in the Medicare population” and didn’t account for those among individuals under 65 years of age or who were uninsured.
The study, involving researchers from six different universities, also recognized that, as the use of coal decreased, the rates of death also went down significantly, dropping by 95 percent by the final years of examination.
“Fine particle air pollution from coal has been treated as if it’s just another air pollutant, but it’s much more harmful than we thought and its mortality burden has been seriously underestimated,” the study’s lead author, Lucas Henneman, said at the time of its publication.
Climatologists and other experts blasted the administration for reverting back to coal as the preferred method of energy generation.
Describing the move as a “staggering, staggering waste of money, time and opportunity,” Julie McNamara, associate policy director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, noted that people across the U.S. are “struggling with rapidly escalating electricity costs,” and that using coal wasn’t a viable solution.
“The country has real solutions at hand — yet instead of pushing ahead with investments in the fastest, cheapest, cleanest resources available, the Trump administration is actively doing everything it can to stop the deployment of new solar and wind projects, to stop investments in energy efficiency, and to stop the buildout of modern grid infrastructure,” McNamara added.
The move is a reckless “slashing [of] health, safety and environmental standards [that] will harm people’s health and the environment,” McNamara said, describing coal as a “rapidly dwindling relic of the past, not a solution for the future.”
Other critics agreed that the move toward coal was dangerous and counterproductive.
“It’s expensive, it’s outdated, and it just puts us at risk,” said Erin Sikorsky, director of the Center for Climate & Security at The Council on Strategic Risks.
“It’s going to be expensive and require manpower. And ultimately it’s short-sighted, because it won’t last,” explained Lauren Herzer Risi, director of the Environmental Security Program at the Stimson Center.
This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by Chris Walker.