Right-wing media jumped to defend four recent executive orders signed by President Donald Trump to bolster the dying coal industry, telling viewers that reviving what they often incorrectly called “clean coal” would make the country more competitive with China and allow the U.S. to dominate the AI “arms race” by ensuring an abundant supply of reliable energy. Conservative outlets are also framing Trump as an ally to coal miners — even as the administration eliminates trusted resources to protect their health and safety.

• On April 8, Trump “signed a series of executive orders aimed at boosting the struggling coal industry, a reliable but polluting energy source that’s long been in decline.” The Associated Press: “Under the four orders, Trump uses his emergency authority to allow some older coal-fired power plants set for retirement to keep producing electricity to meet rising U.S. power demand amid growth in data centers, artificial intelligence and electric cars. Trump also directed federal agencies to identify coal resources on federal lands, lift barriers to coal mining and prioritize coal leasing on U.S. lands. In a related action, Trump also signed a proclamation offering coal-fired power plants a two-year exemption from federal requirements to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsenic and benzene.” [The Associated Press, 4/8/25]
   
• Surrounded by coal miners, Trump said, “We’re ending Joe Biden’s war on beautiful, clean coal once and for all.” Trump announced that “all those plants that have been closed are going to be opened if they're modern enough or they'll be ripped down and brand-new ones will be built.” He added that the orders would “rapidly expedite leases for coal mining on federal lands” and “unlock the sweeping authorities of … the Defense Production Act to turbocharge coal mining in America.” [Roll Call, 4/8/25]
   
• Trump’s efforts to revive coal are likely to fail because of economic factors. Coal can no longer compete with cheaper sources of energy like renewables and natural gas. Additionally, many of the country’s roughly 200 remaining coal plants are outdated and would need “extensive and expensive upgrades to continue running,” according to The New York Times. [The New York Times, 4/14/25]
   
• Trump gave the Department of Energy the sole authority to determine how long coal plants stay open. By extending emergency powers, Trump aims “to keep unprofitable and polluting coal plants open in the name of reliability — and stick utilities, customers, and communities with the hefty financial and health costs,” according to Canary Media. In 2017, Energy Secretary Rick Perry tried to do something similar, directing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission “to issue a rule providing for assured cost recovery (including a return on equity) for coal and nuclear plants.” All five FERC commissioners rejected the directive because the Energy Department “did not show a need to bail out the plants and ignored the cost of doing so,” claiming that because “the plan excluded other types of power that could provide resilience to the grid, it was unduly discriminatory or preferential.”  [Canary Media, 4/9/25; Natural Resources Defense Council, 3/31/25]

Coal ash — a toxic byproduct of coal-fired power that contains heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and mercury — harms air quality and threatens waterways. In some states, coal ash can be stored in unlined pits, creating a high risk for leeching into groundwater, and contaminants can also get mixed into nearby bodies of water during extreme weather events like floods and hurricanes. In March, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced he would be handing enforcement of the agency’s 2015 coal ash rule over to the states, all but ensuring that more pollution will be permitted. The EPA is also “reviewing” a 2024 rule that “essentially prohibits any pollution of groundwater or water bodies by coal plant sites, regardless of the exact source.”

• One America News Network host Dan Ball told West Virginia state Sen. Chris Rose, “I got to feel like you’re pretty excited for your state and just for the American people in general that we can open up other avenues of clean-burning fossil fuels instead of trying to ram electric — electric, solar, wind, and everything else down our throats.” Ball later asked, “America burns coal the cleanest of any country on the planet, right?” Rose agreed, claiming, “If you was to turn off all the coal consumption, all the coal generation in America, it would have zero measurable environmental impact on the world.” [OANN, Real America with Dan Ball, 4/9/25]

• Washington Examiner columnist Salena Zito told right-wing host Jesse Kelly, “Coal mining is not what you think it is. It's not a guy with a pick, you know, crawling underground. It's a very technology-driven industry, it's a very clean industry. The industry has changed dramatically in the past 15 years.” [The First, I’m Right with Jesse Kelly, 4/9/25]

• Discussing what Trump’s orders mean for coal production in the U.S., guest Bo Copley told Fox’s Carley Shimkus that “technology moves every day and it becomes cleaner every day.” He added, “The people who have been against coal for years because it is harmful to the environment or because it’s impacting Mother Earth, it is funny now to watch them burn electric cars because, well, I thought they were supposed to be for the environment but apparently they are for anything that’s not in Donald Trump's agenda.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends First, 4/9/25]

• Fox News contributor Deroy Murdock said, “One thing about coal, as you say, it’s cleaner now than it used to be. Trump likes talking about clean coal, beautiful clean coal, and I guess the scrubbers and so on are able to take a lot of the pollutants out.” While improved technology has significantly cut pollution from coal plants, they still produce more greenhouse gas emissions than any other source of energy by far. “Although coal accounted for about 67 percent of CO2 emissions from the sector, it represented only about 32 percent of the electricity generated in the United States in 2016,” according to the EPA. Communities near coal plants and even coal trains also experience higher rates of asthma and heart disease, and water pollution from coal ash is a major problem in these areas as well. [Fox Business, The Big Money Show, 4/8/25; University of California, Davis, 4/18/24; FactCheck.org, 11/19/18; MarylandMatters.org, 3/24/25]

Regardless of what China is doing, phasing out coal makes economic sense for the U.S. According to think tank RMI, “The latest research indicates that emissions from uneconomically dispatched coal plants — coal plants that run when cheaper resources are available — cost communities $13–$26 billion in health costs each year.” A 2023 study from the think tank Energy Innovation found that “it’s more expensive for 99% of the country’s coal-fired power plants to keep running” than it would be to replace them with brand-new local solar or wind farms. “Coal is unequivocally more expensive than wind and solar resources, it’s just no longer cost competitive with renewables,” said policy analyst Michelle Solomon.

• After Fox Business host Stuart Varney asked what he would say to environmentalists who are upset with Trump’s executive orders, mining executive Randall Atkins replied that they are “misguided” and claimed that “the Chinese are doing a better job of it than we are because they’re building two new power plants a week,” adding, “We have a long way to go to catch up, and indeed that is what I think the president’s agenda of America first is all about.” Atkins falsely claimed that “there are ways that you can safely and cleanly burn coal,” adding that “coal, of course, is the dominant fuel in the United States.” [Fox Business, Varney & Co., 4/10/25; ABC News, 3/18/25]

• Former Trump EPA chief of staff and Project 2025 co-author Mandy Gunasekara deflected Varney’s question about whether we have “abandoned CO2 emissions control completely” by saying that “all of the purported regulatory benefits of the Biden-era regulations” are “essentially undone by two weeks of China operating their coal plants in the current status quo.” Gunasekara claimed that the Trump administration has “certainly not” abandoned CO2 regulations but added, “If we really wanted to have a serious conversation about greenhouse gas emissions, you would look to China.” [Fox Business, Varney & Co., 4/9/25]

• While discussing how the executive orders aim to revive coal plants, Fox Business host Jackie DeAngelis said that “hundreds of coal plants” across the country “have closed in the past 20 years, but don’t tell that to China because they operate over a thousand of them. America shut down while China was powering up.” [Fox Business, The Big Money Show, 4/9/25]

• Discussing Trump’s executive orders on coal, guest Larry Beherns told OANN host Riley Lewis, “China is a major adversary to American trade and American power. And yet, last year, they increased their coal production by 8%. They’re not worried about any type of environmental regulations.” Beherns, communication director for the fossil fuel industry advocacy group Power the Future, added that “for President Trump to say — correctly say — that we can do it better and cleaner here in the United States, and we’re going to do exactly that, is a huge step forward, and it couldn’t have happened fast enough.” [OANN, The Real Story with Riley Lewis, 4/9/25; DeSmog, accessed 4/14/25]
   

Experts predict that renewable energy and nuclear power — not coal — can meet the long-term energy demands of AI. “Between 2030 and 2035 the rise in renewables and nuclear [in China] pushes coal into decline,” according to a recent report on AI from the International Energy Agency. “In Europe renewables and nuclear are set to supply most of the additional electricity required, with their combined share rising to 85% by 2030.” Even easing restrictions on coal plants would likely not be enough to make them attractive investments in the U.S. In The Atlantic, Matteo Wong writes, “Using natural gas, coal, or oil to power the way to an AI future will not be the inevitable result of the physics, chemistry, or economics of electricity generation so much as a decision driven by politics and profit.”

• OANN chief White House correspondent Daniel Baldwin said that Trump’s executive actions “expanding the use of coal — clean coal” are necessary because “the United States is going to need a lot more energy because China is obviously going to be involved in that AI race.” [OANN, The Real Story with Riley Lewis, 4/11/25]

• Former West Virginia Republican Senate candidate Bo Copley told Fox host Carley Shimkus that coal is “absolutely” the answer to power AI development in the U.S. Shimkus said, “One of the reasons the president is so interested in coal is because it takes a massive amount of energy to fuel these AI plants, and AI is the future.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends First, 4/9/25]

• In an interview with West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey discussing Trump’s orders, Fox host Steve Doocy said that coal plants are beneficial because of the ability to “put data centers or AI centers on top of a, you know, this endless supply of coal you have got, that’s brilliant. Not only do you put coal miners back to work, but you bring in a new industry.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 4/9/25]

• Discussing Trump’s executive orders, right-wing reporter Salena Zito told right-wing host Jesse Kelly that coal is needed to provide “an abundance of energy” to power AI data centers. Comparing the situation to the Cold War “arms race,” Zito told Kelly, “Today, it’s the race for AI dominance.” She also claimed that data centers “desperately need electricity, and a lot of it,” and “they are not going to be able to get it solar or wind. They’re going to get it from three entities: natural gas, coal, and nuclear.” [The First, I’m Right with Jesse Kelly, 4/9/25]

• On his radio show, Fox host Sean Hannity praised Trump’s  orders to “reinvigorate affordable, reliable clean coal and how critical coal is to achieving American energy and artificial intelligence dominance.” Hannity also celebrated Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, complaining that “the worst, dirtiest coal on Earth is being used in China,” which also has “the most filthy air on the face of the earth.” [Premiere Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 4/8/25]
  
   

The Trump administration is delaying the implementation of a rule to limit miners’ exposure to silica dust, a major cause of black lung disease. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also eliminated a “trusted and universally relied upon” unit at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that significantly reduced instances of black lung disease in longtime coal workers and “gives every miner in the county — roughly 50,000 — access to care for free.” Among NIOSH’s 900 layoffs (representing nearly two-thirds of the agency’s total workforce) 400 were mine safety researchers. The cuts come at a time when “20% of coal miners in Central Appalachia are suffering from black lung – the highest rate detected in more than 25 years.” 

• While discussing tariffs, Fox's Lawrence Jones said that Trump is “fighting for the little guy” as evidenced by the miners who accompanied him as he signed the April 8 executive orders. “They are cheering him on as well,” Jones claimed. “Elites have gotten used to a certain lifestyle and what we were invested in the market and all that, but he is fighting for the little guy right now. I think we may just want to hold on and see what happens. If they start to turn on it, then I think we have a different ballgame here.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 
  4/9/25]

• Newsmax host Greg Kelly praised “the connection President Trump had with some of these regular guys who came to see this monumental executive order for them,” accompanied by the chyron “President Trump: A Man of the People.” He also said that Trump’s order was “designed to get coal back on its feet again after it was unjustly shut down by Joe Biden.” Later, Kelly declared that “one of the reasons why the coal workers were so nice and happy to be at the White House today” was that Biden promised to “end fossil fuels.” [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, 4/9/25]

• War Room correspondent Natalie Winters asked a coal miner “Is President Trump the only, first, from your perspective, president who has actually treated you guys with the dignity and respect that your industry deserves?” Jackson replied, “Absolutely,” because federal energy policy “always left you with an unsettling feeling until President Trump’s first term and now with his second.” [Real America’s Voice, War Room with Steve Bannon, 4/8/25]

• Fox host Jeanine Piro asked, “If Donald Trump only cared about himself and lining the pockets of the rich, why would he be fighting like he’s fighting right now? Why would he be doing what he did in the White House today with those coal miners?” 
  [Fox News, The Five, 4/8/25]