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National Coal Council

Report: Maximizing the Value of the Coal Fleet

Download the Report

What is the National Coal Council?

The National Coal Council (NCC) advises the Secretary of Energy on coal
and related issues. It was reestablished in June 2025. The NCC includes
more than 60 members representing various parts of the coal value chain.
Jim Grech, President and CEO of Peabody Energy, is Chair, and Jimmy
Brock, Chairman and CEO of Core Natural Resources, is Vice Chair.

Learn more abut the NCC and this Report

  • The National Coal Council (NCC) advises the Secretary of Energy on coal and related issues. It was reestablished in June 2025.
  • The NCC includes more than 60 members representing various parts of the coal value chain. Jim Grech, President and CEO of Peabody Energy, is Chair, and Jimmy Brock, Chairman and CEO of Core Natural Resources, is Vice Chair.
  • The report provides recommendations to enable the existing coal fleet to help meet rapidly rising electricity demand while promoting grid reliability, affordable electricity, economic growth, and national security.
  • Electricity demand is growing after roughly 15 years of little change, driven by artificial intelligence, data centers, advanced manufacturing, electrification, and broader economic growth. At the same time, 60 GW of coal-fueled generation have announced plans to retire by 2035. The report’s recommendations are intended to reverse these retirements.
  • The NCC Electricity Subcommittee prepared the report with input from the entire NCC. Michelle Bloodworth, President and CEO of America’s Power, chaired the subcommittee.
  • The report was submitted to DOE at the NCC’s July 21, 2026 meeting.
  • The existing fleet comprises 168 GW of coal generation across 37 states. These plants are dispatchable, reliable, resilient, and fuel secure.
  • Running the fleet at historic operating levels could help meet projected electricity demand growth.
  • Preserving and modernizing existing coal power plants is generally less expensive than replacing them with new generation and infrastructure which can take years to build.
  • The report concludes that the fleet’s decline has not been caused by market forces alone. Regulations, state mandates, subsidies for competing resources, retirement agreements, and electricity market rules have contributed to premature closures and discouraged investment.
  • The report provides 19 recommendations: six regulatory reforms, seven electricity market reforms, four recommendations for financial support, and two recommendations concerning new coal power plants.
  • Together, the recommendations form a strategy to preserve and modernize the existing fleet, strengthen its supply chain, and restore the option to develop new coal generation.
  • Revise or repeal EPA rules that threaten coal power plants, including rules covering carbon emissions, wastewater, coal ash, plant modifications, air toxics, ozone transport, and regional haze.
  • Require DOE, EPA, federal electricity regulators, and grid operators to examine the reliability consequences of proposed regulations. The federal government should also work with states and plant owners to modify retirement agreements when needed to protect reliability.
  • Continue streamlining federal coal leasing, mine approvals, and permitting, and have Congress provide durable policy certainty so plant owners can make long-term investment decisions.
  • Correct market rules that allow subsidized resources to bid at zero or negative prices and improve how grid operators measure the dependable capacity provided by different electricity sources.
  • Explicitly recognize and compensate services such as on-site fuel, the ability to operate when called upon, generator upgrades, and performance during extended periods of system stress.
  • Extend longer-term reliability agreements for plants needed to keep the grid dependable, rather than relying only on temporary emergency orders.
  • Encourage direct contracts and co-location between existing coal power plants and large electricity users, including data centers, through faster interconnection and permitting.
  • Expand and streamline DOE grants and loan guarantees for projects that preserve and modernize existing coal power plants.
  • Use long-term federal power purchases and the Defense Production Act to support the coal fleet, domestic equipment manufacturers, replacement-parts suppliers, and other critical infrastructure.
  • Ensure that coal power plants dependent on particular coal sources retain access to the necessary leases, permits, transportation, and other supply-chain resources.
  • Preserving the existing fleet is the immediate priority, but the report also calls for building new coal generation.
  • DOE should provide grants and loan guarantees to new coal projects and identify regulatory, financial, and other barriers that prevent projects from moving forward.
  • The sites of retired coal power plants may be strong candidates for new plants because many already have transmission access, water, transportation infrastructure, experienced workers, and community support.
  • The recommendations call for actions by DOE, EPA, the Department of the Interior, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, grid operators, Congress, states, and plant owners.
  • The report recommends that DOE establish a system to track implementation.
“There’s no road for a great, prosperous America without saving the coal plants we have and doing everything we can to remove barriers that can open up the possibility to expand our coal fleet.”
Secretary Chris Wright
Department of Energy
“Coal plants used to operate at a 70% capacity factor. The average capacity factor for coal last year was around 42%. We have a lot of unused capacity… The best way to meet this demand is to use the existing resources, including the coal fleet.”
Michelle Bloodworth
President and CEO of America’s Power
“The U.S. coal fleet is indeed an available national asset that must be preserved and optimized. Standing here today, at the dawn of the AI revolution, with power demand projected to soar in years ahead, it would be folly to turn our backs on such a wellspring of reliable, secure, resilient, and underutilized form of power generation.”
Jimmy Brock
President and CEO of CONSOL Energy
“The reality is clear, we need more electricity, and to do that, we need more coal.”
Secretary Doug Burgum
Department of Interior
“This past winter, during storm Fern, if coal wasn’t on board and if coal hadn’t been able to flex up during that storm, millions of people would have been out of power, and hundreds or perhaps more people would have died during that storm.”
Secretary Doug Burgum
Department of Interior
“Keeping [existing coal plants] alive, providing that reliable, durable base load power, that is where the affordable cost comes from.”
Administrator Lee Zeldin
Environmental Protection Agency
“Our U.S. coal reserves, quite simply, are larger than any other nation’s single energy resource. It’s larger than all the oil in Saudi Arabia. It’s larger than all the gas in Russia, and it’s many times greater than the combined oil and gas reserves in the United States.”
Jim Grech
President and CEO of Peabody Energy