The Trump administration’s embrace of coal power is a timely and essential response to a three-headed energy emergency. The U.S. is facing an electricity supply crisis shaped by rapidly eroding grid reliability, soaring power demand and ballooning prices. The coal fleet is critical to tackling all three.
Rich Nolan
The North American Electric Reliability Corp., the nation’s grid watchdog, has warned that approaching power supply shortfalls are a “five-alarm fire,” with more than half the country facing significant blackout risks over the next decade.
Driving the crisis has been the loss of on-demand power plants — casualties of broken power markets, renewable energy mandates and punishing regulations — and the sudden arrival of exploding electricity demand.
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New manufacturing facilities, millions of electric vehicles and the overnight emergence of data centers with the power needs of entire cities will overwhelmed power supplies. U.S. power demand is expected to increase by about 75% 2050. The nation needs far more electricity, and it needs it fast.
Skyrocketing utility bills, up 40% since 2020, also reflect the crisis as markets try to incentivize new supply. Massive utility spending on new power capacity and energy infrastructure is slamming ratepayers.
The administration, much to its credit, is confronting the crisis with the urgency it demands. It has embraced coal as a key piece of the answer.
The administration rightly recognizes that the first step in addressing the supply crisis is to stop the loss of essential generating capacity. A regulatory reset is allowing coal to compete again. The administration now is making targeted investments to upgrade existing plants, enabling them to achieve greater efficiency, extend their operating lives and produce more power when it’s needed most.
This strategy accomplishes three important goals:
- It helps stabilize the supply of power in markets where the loss of further coal capacity could turn a deeply difficult situation into an untenable one. The White House says it has supported and saved more than 40 gigawatts of coal power, enough to power 25 million homes.
- It immediately puts more reliable, on-demand power onto the grid. That’s important because, as power demand surges, a global logjam is slowing the delivery of natural gas turbines. And the construction of more nuclear power plants is years away. Other additions to the power supply are dominated by renewable sources, which don't produce energy continuously, so they may not supply the power grid when it needs it the most.
- It preserves important energy options in cost-effective ways.
Consider the role coal played in holding down energy costs last year. Wholesale U.S. natural gas prices in 2025 jumped 56%, adding billions of dollars in cost to U.S. consumers. This was a significant increase but would have been larger if not for U.S. coal. Utilities were able to ramp up coal generation in response, providing a shock absorber to rising natural gas prices. Having that option saved U.S. consumers tens of billions of dollars in otherwise higher energy costs.
Preserving — and even enhancing — coal plants is a very well-made investment.
The need for fuel options and security are now driving energy policy as the world faces another energy crisis, the second in four years. Nations across Asia and Europe are leaning on coal to shore up energy supplies and reduce costs. Annual global coal demand is rising fast.
The administration isn’t bucking a global trend. Its embrace of coal is right in line with it.
The U.S. has the world’s largest coal reserves and a dynamic coal industry. Investing in U.S. coal capacity is not merely sound energy policy. It is recognition of alarming realities. With electricity demand soaring, prices climbing and reliability deteriorating, it would be energy policy malpractice not to embrace U.S. coal.
