President Donald Trump is set to announce an executive order directing the Pentagon to buy electricity from coal-powered plants, Bloomberg reported, citing an unnamed White House official.
The order will be motivated with the 1950 Defense Production Act, which gives the president the power to give private industries direction on the grounds of national security.
In additional support for coal power, Trump will also announce plans for the disbursement of $175 million in federal funds for upgrades at six coal-powered plants in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and North Carolina.
Coal power in the United States currently accounts for less than a fifth of total generation, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. The Trump administration is working to change this as it prioritizes electricity reliability over emissions footprints.
“We’re bringing back an industry that was abandoned,” the President said last April at the signing of the Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order. He added, “We’re going to put the miners back to work.”
On Tuesday, the White House Press Secretary said that at today’s executive order announcement, the President would talk about “clean, beautiful coal as America’s most reliable and affordable energy source, especially during periods of peak demand, just as we saw during this most recent winter storm.”
Meanwhile, power utilities themselves have been making steps to extend the life of coal power plants to secure reliable, baseload electricity generation capacity. Just this week, the Tennessee Valley Authority said it no longer planned to close two coal power plants it previously wanted to decommission in 2035.
“As power demand grows, TVA is looking at every option to bolster our generating fleet to continue providing affordable, reliable electricity to our 10 million customers, create jobs and help communities thrive,” the company’s spokesman said in a statement on Tuesday, as quoted by AP.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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