President Trump directs the Pentagon to purchase coal power for military bases, citing national security and reliability over renewable energy concerns
PRESIDENT Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants. He signed the executive order during a White House ceremony surrounded by coal miners on Wednesday.
The directive instructs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to secure long-term agreements involving coal. Trump stated the fossil fuel is “critical to our national security” at the event.
Industry leaders presented the president with a trophy naming him the “undisputed champion of coal.” The order argues coal provides “uninterrupted, on-demand baseload power” for US military bases.
This reflects Trump’s longstanding claim that renewable energy sources are unreliable. The move is his latest effort to boost the coal industry since returning to office in January 2025.
Trump has repeatedly championed what he calls “beautiful clean coal.” In April, he signed measures to “turbocharge coal mining” and double electricity production.
That policy aimed to compete with China in powering energy-intensive AI technology. The billionaire president is systematically rolling back the green policies of his Democratic predecessors.
He is also pushing to erase a landmark scientific finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health. That finding, set to be scrapped on Thursday, forms the bedrock of US regulations to curb planet-warming pollution.