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Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced on Sept. 29 a government-led initiative to boost coal use and production in the U.S. As he told Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo in an interview: this will not sit well with the Chardonnay set.
As electricity prices soar across the U.S., thanks in part to dogged efforts by blue-state officials to dump fossil fuels, those climate-obsessed voices will be drowned out by those of struggling consumers.
Over the two decades from January 1985 through January 2005, electricity prices in the U.S. climbed by only 19%; in the following 20 years until January of this year, electricity prices exploded by more than 90%. Just this year, the price per kilowatt-hour has jumped another 6%.
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In California, the trends are even worse as Golden State residents pay almost double the average charge in the U.S. People living in New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts are similarly paying much higher prices than the national average. Why the disparity? Because Democrat-run states have purposefully shifted to high-cost and unreliable renewable energy.
In New York, as governor, Andrew Cuomo banned fracking and banned new pipelines from bringing much-needed and cheaper natural gas into his state. New Jersey and other blue states promoted similar measures, while embracing renewables like offshore wind and solar that are intermittent and therefore need backup, usually provided by natural gas. This is not efficient, and it is costly.
Unlike the Biden administration, the Trump White House understands that the demand for energy over the next few years, thanks in particular to AI and other new technologies, will expand at a pace that will truly demand an “all of the above” approach. That means not just increased oil and natural gas production, investments in solar and other renewables, but also more reliance on nuclear power and — yes — on coal.
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President Barack Obama, Biden and other climate warriors have, for years, waged war against coal, which today accounts for 15% of electricity production, down from half as recently as 2000. In 2016, then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton proudly claimed her clean energy policies would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” a boneheaded remark that showed how out of touch the former first lady was with the needs of working-class Americans. At the time, there were some 70,000 coal miners in the U.S.; today, that has shrunk to 40,000.
President Donald Trump recognizes that one of the greatest assets of the United States, enhancing our ability to compete in next-generation technology, is our abundant cheap energy, and especially coal. The government’s Energy Information Administration wrote last year, “In the United States, coal resources are larger than remaining natural gas and oil resources.” In addition, it reported that, “As of Jan. 1, 2024, the demonstrated reserve base (DRB) was estimated to contain 469 billion short tons of coal.”
The 2024 production was just above 500 million short tons, or less than half of the amount produced in 2008. Roughly speaking, we could double current coal output and produce at that level for hundreds of years. That is not an asset any government should ignore.
The Chinese certainly would not let such a reserve go to waste. While the U.S. and Europe sacrifice using cheap coal in favor of higher-cost renewables in their quest to cut carbon emissions, the Chinese are building coal-fired power plants as rapidly as they can, the environmental consequences be damned.
TRUMP ADMIN PUTS $625M TOWARD KEEPING COAL PLANTS OPEN, LOWER ENERGY COSTS
While China is opening coal plants, the U.S. has been shutting ours down. The White House will change that. The government is planning to spend $625 million, including $350 million to modernize coal plants, $175 million for coal projects that will target rural communities and some $100 million to make existing plants cleaner and more efficient. Overall, the objective is to keep more plants running, including dozens that were slated to close.
This is not the first move made by the Trump White House to expand coal’s role in our energy system. In spring, the president signed an executive order instructing the head of the National Energy Dominance Council to designate coal as a “mineral”; the purpose was to “streamline permitting,” which would allow more leasing and ultimately more production overall, and, specifically, on federal lands. The president also demanded that agencies reduce “barriers” to coal mining and “rescind any agency policies that seek to transition the nation away from coal production.”
Wright told Bartiromo that, “We’re going to export more of that coal, we’re going to use it for American industry, particularly as we reindustrialize, and it’s going to continue to provide 15%-16% of our electricity and enable us to reindustrialize and win the AI race.”
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The Trump administration is not just focused on coal. It is also pushing for higher oil and natural gas production, reversing Biden’s slow-walking of drilling permits and leasing. Oil production is up about 3% this year, but that is just the beginning.
TRUMP ADMIN TACKLES URGENT ELECTRICAL GRID CRISIS AS AI SET TO DOUBLE DEMAND
In August, the Department of the Interior proposed a new oil and gas offshore leasing plan that includes 30 auctions in the Gulf of America through 2040 and six auctions in Alaska’s Cook Inlet through 2032. That’s a far cry from the Biden administration’s plan, which scheduled a total of only three oil and gas lease sales — the minimum required by the Inflation Reduction Act. Biden leased fewer federal acres for oil and gas than any president since World War II.
While China is opening coal plants, the U.S. has been shutting ours down. The White House will change that.
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Nuclear, too, is getting a boost from the Trump White House. In May, Trump initiated a “nuclear energy renaissance,” directing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to streamline the approval process for new reactors, including setting a new 18-month deadline for licensing decisions. The goal? Increase U.S. nuclear energy capacity from around 100 gigawatts to 400 gigawatts by 2050.
This “all of the above” energy renewal program — exploiting this country’s vast energy resources — may well become President Trump’s greatest legacy. We need energy to compete … and to make America great again.