Gordon cheers Trump’s coal revival plan while environmentalists warn of disaster

Citing the power demands of a global artificial intelligence race, the Trump administration on Monday underscored its mission to revive and expand the U.S. coal industry to help meet the data industry’s enormous forecast for electricity. 

Federal agencies will slash more regulations, open 13.1 million federal acres to coal leasing and spend $625 million on various coal initiatives, including one to “retrofit” old coal plants that might otherwise be retired, according to the administration.

“Beautiful, clean coal will be essential to powering America’s reindustrialization and winning the AI race,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a prepared statement. “These funds will help keep our nation’s coal plants operating and will be vital to keeping electricity prices low and the lights on without interruption.”



Wyoming, its coal communities and electric ratepayers are among the primary benefactors of the administration’s suite of actions to “unshackle” the industry from the “anti-coal” policies of the Biden administration, said Gov. Mark Gordon, who joined top administration officials in D.C. on Monday to celebrate Trump’s coal revival package.

Gov. Mark Gordon speaks at a U.S. Department of the Interior event in Washington, D.C. in September 2025. Seated next to him are Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Under Secretary of Energy Preston Griffin III. Behind Gordon is Sen. John Barrasso. (Gov. Mark Gordon’s office)

Gov. Mark Gordon speaks at a U.S. Department of the Interior event in Washington, D.C. in September 2025. Seated next to him are Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Under Secretary of Energy Preston Griffin III. Behind Gordon is Sen. John Barrasso. (Gov. Mark Gordon’s office)

“Instead of talking about restricting, limiting, regulating our energy, we want to make sure it’s appropriately managed,” Gordon told reporters Tuesday morning during a virtual press conference. “But at the same time, we’re not going to use regulation to try to curtail or stymie any particular type of production.”

The coal industry’s dramatic 15-year slide has cut Wyoming production by nearly half, coinciding with the retirement of aging power plants, a shift to natural gas-fired electric generation and increasingly price-competitive wind and solar energy. 

Those market shifts, however, were unduly influenced — at least in part — by punishing regulations on coal and tax incentives that obscured the actual competitiveness of renewables, Gordon said.

President Donald Trump’s coal initiatives will help level the playing field, he said, and provide the coal industry an opportunity to “upgrade” technologies such as coal-carbon capture while bringing down the cost. To date, the technology remains too costly and, if installed on an existing coal plant, would sap electrical output by up to 30%, according to Wyoming utilities. 

“Some of the [federal coal] grants will go to those technologies, so we’ll continue to work on that,” Gordon said, responding to a WyoFile question. “You’re right, some of these plants are decades old, and there’s been a view that we’re going to [phase out coal], so [there’s not been enough investment] in that. This is an opportunity to reinvest and be able to equalize those costs over time.”

Conservation groups, however, say the Trump administration is waging a war on renewable energy while placing a risky bet on coal that threatens public health and environmental safety.

“There’s no such thing as clean coal,” Center for Western Priorities Policy Director Rachael Hamby said in a prepared statement. “This announcement is just a plan to pollute more and rip off taxpayers while insisting that power companies use a more expensive fuel that they don’t even want.”

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