The Trump administration is ramping up America's energy production, and everything is on the table, including that arch-nemesis of the leftist climate scolds - coal. The Trump administration has, in six months, greenlit four major coal projects, drawing a brilliant contrast to the energy-unfriendly Biden administration.
The Trump administration is seeking to boost coal production in the United States with a series of moves it says stand in stark contrast with the record of the Biden administration.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration approved a permit to increase coal mining by green-lighting Montana’s Rosebud Mine, which the Department of the Interior says "enables the recovery of approximately 33.75 million tons of federal coal and extends the mine’s operation through 2039."
The move represents the fourth time in Trump’s second term that a coal mining permit has been granted or extended, including three new permits and one permit expansion.
Other sites opened up include Hurricane Creek Mining, in Tennessee, a project the administration says could produce up to 1.8 million tons of coal over the next 10 years and create 24 local jobs, and Navajo Transitional Energy Company in Montana, which enables the production of 39.9 million tons of federal coal and creation of 280 full-time jobs.
Jobs, energy - what's not to like?
The United States has major coal reserves, 273 billion tons of coal according to the most recent available estimates. That's about a hundred billion tons more than the next two nations with the most coal reserves, those being Russia with 178 billion tons and China with 173 billion. We're the Saudi Arabia of coal, and with increasing technologies making coal cleaner to extract and use to generate electricity, coal is more attractive than ever.
But wait! There's more!
The administration is also touting 13 other projects that are currently at various stages in the permitting process including 8 Lease by Applications and 5 Lease Modification Applications.
The administration also says that under former President Biden, no new coal permits were granted and touted the president’s efforts in a statement to Fox News Digital.
What a difference a president makes.
Read More: Trump Axes Obama’s Endangerment Finding
US Energy Dominance and the Rust Belt Renaissance
This all comes on the heels of a reduction in coal extraction under the Biden administration:
U.S. production of coal amounted to 512.1 million short tons in 2024, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). That marked an over 11% decline from the prior year.
In its "Annual Coal Report" released in April, the EIA said the U.S. produced "less than half of the amount" of coal in 2023, compared to 2008.
Granted, coal isn't as clean as natural gas, nor does it quite the same energy density; and when you compare it to nuclear power, coal falls behind on energy density, cleanliness of operation, pretty much every metric. Coal is also more difficult to transport, requiring trains with hopper cars; you can't put coal into a pipeline. But we make up for a lot of that by having twice as much coal as any other nation on the planet.
There's a lot to be done to revive America's energy portfolio. Coal may not be the ideal fuel of choice, but it has to be part of the picture. Right now, everything has to be part of the picture. Energy is critical. Everything depends on it. And we need to shoot every arrow in our energy quiver, if we are to make the United States once more a major industrial power.
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