Trump's Support of Coal
Trump coal subsidy has a side hustle
6/5/20262 min read
The Trump administration announced $700 million in federal funds to support more coal powered infrastructure. For the record, I view this the same way I view subsidies for wind, solar, or any other power – NO! Every industry should survive on it’s own, even if it is only costing little more than $4 per American worker.
The plan is to help build two large coal power plants, the first since 2013. It would also restart a 200-MW plant in Maryland, which was shuttered in 2023, supposedly because it wasn’t economical to keep it running. It will also fund 13 existing plants and an export terminal in California.
The majority of the money will come from the Defense Production Act, which gives the president significant authority over domestic industries in the interest of national defense. While overall energy is certainly a national defense issue, building new coal plants is questionable. Even with newer tech, it’s not the cleanest energy around. Coal allegedly caused 55% of total carbon emissions from the U.S. power sector in 2022, with gases such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and other particulates discharged into the atmosphere.
An additional irony is that a portion of the funding will come from carbon capture funds. So instead of capturing carbon (which I find questionable), we’ll create more carbon (something I don’t oppose when needed – say, backup power).
While the United States needs more energy to further strengthen the grid, here’s part of the plan I also have issue with. The two new coal plants funded by the DOE are both explicitly designed to power data centers. The first, a proposed 1.25-gigawatt coal-fired plant in Alaska, would be developed by the Terra Energy Center, an affiliate of Canadian company, Flatlands Energy. However, the project site is 70 miles from the nearest transmission line, and the mine needed to feed the plant doesn’t yet exist. Taxpayers shouldn’t be helping to fund a Canadian company, especially absent infrastructure.
The second new plant receiving funding is a 1.6-GW project proposed in West Virginia, which would provide power to a 1-GW data center. Plans include “a fully integrated carbon capture system designed to capture a large portion of CO2 from flue gas.”
Neither of the projects appear to have secured permits or progressed beyond preliminary development. Nor have any data centers publicly committed to buy the power. Even if I did support taxpayer funded projects, wouldn’t it be wise to make sure commitments are in hand before starting any funding?
Though not a fan of AI, I am a fan of creating more energy. Sadly, the citizens of the county I reside in, just voted down a new natural gas backup energy plant. My fellow AI haters (falsely?) claimed it was secretly tied into a future data center.
The Trump administration likes to bring up voter frustration with rising electricity costs. Lack of generation, aging infrastructure, and AI (which Trump is all-in on) all play a role. One can be solved instantly. Stop new data centers! The U.S. has more hyper-scale date centers (650+) than any other country has total data centers.
Source used: Latitude Media
