President Donald Trump announced Thursday the administration is invoking emergency powers to keep 13 coal plants running across the U.S.

Trump said his administration is invoking the Defense Production Act to save the plants in 10 different states and will invest around $700 million to help revitalize American coal, through projects including a “massive new” coal export terminal in California and two new coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia.

Trump framed the action as alleviating energy costs while electricity demand is climbing and conflict in Iran is rocking global oil markets.

“These were incredible plants. So productive,” Trump said. “Today, we’re taking historic action to bring down the price of energy and the cost of living for all Americans with the power of clean, beautiful coal… As a result of the $700M investment that I’m announcing today, we will protect 14 coal plants and 42 coal mines, and build two new coal plants and one massive new export terminal. … These actions will support over 14,000 jobs and save the American people $50B in electricity costs.”

Joined by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in the Oval Office, Trump and his cabinet members stressed the vitality of the energy resource and noted the Biden administration tried to restrict coal through aggressive regulations.

Former President Joe Biden said, “We’re going to be shutting these plants down all across America” and invoked the same Defense Production Act to accelerate the production of green energy technology such as solar and heat pumps.

Trump critiqued Biden’s energy policies throughout the announcement and quipped that his cabinet members must precede the word “coal” with the adjectives “clean” and “beautiful.”

“For so many Americans, clean, beautiful coal is their source of heat, of energy, of warmth, of a job, an economy, community and family,” Zeldin said, arguing that stringent Biden EPA regulations were trying to “strangulate” the industry and that Trump encouraged the agency to “destroy those regulations as soon as possible for the Americans who want to stay warm [and] want to live the American dream.”

The newest American coal plant came online in 2013, and the Energy Information Administration projected in November 2022 that nearly a quarter of U.S. coal plants would retire by 2029. The Trump administration has issued multiple emergency orders to keep coal plants humming.

Trump declared a National Energy Emergency on his first day back in the Oval Office, and his Energy Department warned in July 2025 that if the U.S. continues to retire reliable power at the same rate, blackouts could increase by a factor of 100 by 2030.