In an op-ed published on Fox News last week, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, and Secretary of Energy Christopher Wright laid out how the Trump Administration is working to make America energy dominant.
The article comes on the heels of the White House’s Advancing America’s Beautiful Clean Coal event where the administration unveiled a set of new initiatives to help protect electric reliability and preserve our nation’s coal fleet.
Coal is critical to the Trump administration’s energy dominance plans because it offers unique attributes. As the op-ed notes, “Coal provides the steady, reliable power that keeps our factories running, our homes warm, and our economy strong. Unlike wind and solar, coal plants can run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, regardless of the weather. Coal also means good-paying jobs for American workers in the communities that brought about the industrial revolution.”
The op-ed discusses how the Biden administration worked to prop up renewables while pushing regulations that would lead to the premature retirement of coal plants. The Trump administration is now undoing much of this through needed deregulatory efforts. President Trump is also putting an emphasis on supporting fuels like coal that can better meet the surging demand for electricity.
“At President Trump’s direction, the Department of Energy released a grid reliability report earlier this year that found that planned retirements of coal and natural gas plants, combined with rising electricity demand, would leave the United States’ electric grid dangerously vulnerable and 100 times more prone to blackouts by 2030,” the op-ed states. “To meet growing demand from domestic manufacturing and the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence data centers, America’s coal-powered power plants must remain in operation.”
The op-ed also discusses how the Department of Energy is keeping coal plants operating to prevent blackouts. This includes a May 2025 order that kept a 1,560 megawatt coal plant operating that proved to be critical in keeping lights on last summer.
Taken together, the Trump administration’s actions represent an important new direction for American energy where baseload power sources like coal will ensure our country has a strong economic footing well into the 21st century. As the op-ed concludes, “The era of American energy dominance is here, and coal will play a critical role in securing America’s position as the energy superpower of the world.”