![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/TrumpCoalAP.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPresident Donald Trump is again seeking to boost the struggling U.S. coal industry, including supporting the construction of the long-delayed terminal in the East Bay.<\/p>\n
Jun 4, 2026<\/p>\n
Updated 2:48 pm PT<\/p>\n
Matthew Daly, The Associated Press<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump speaks as Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, from left, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin and Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wisconsin, listen at an event about coal, on Thursday, June 4, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. \u00a0(Julia Demaree Nikhinson\/AP Photo)<\/p>\n
Together, the announcements will support or create more than 14,000 jobs in coal, construction, rail and maritime industries, a White House official said.<\/p>\n
At a White House ceremony, Trump called coal \u201ca great business,\u201d adding: \u201cIt\u2019s real power. In terms of power, there\u2019s really nothing like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump seeks to reverse long-term decline in U.S. coal<\/p>\n
The announcement is the latest step by Trump to try to reverse the years-long decline in the U.S. coal industry. The administration said last fall it would open 13 million acres of federal lands<\/a>\u00a0for coal mining and provide $625 million to\u00a0recommission or modernize coal-fired power plants<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump issued\u00a0executive orders<\/a>\u00a0soon after retaking office to try to revive coal, a reliable but polluting energy source that\u2019s long been shrinking amid environmental regulations and competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable energy.<\/p>\n Under Trump\u2019s orders, the Energy Department has required coal-fired power plants in Michigan, Indiana, Colorado and Washington state to keep operating past their retirement dates to meet\u00a0rising U.S. power demand<\/a>\u00a0amid growth in data centers,\u00a0artificial intelligence<\/a>\u00a0and electric cars.<\/p>\n The Energy Department has extended short-term orders to allow those efforts to continue, and has ordered oil and gas-fired plants in Maryland and Pennsylvania to run past scheduled retirement dates.<\/p>\n Wright has said the administration\u2019s use of emergency orders to keep aging coal-fired plants operating\u00a0helped prevent major blackouts<\/a>\u00a0during brutally frigid weather that\u00a0gripped most of the country<\/a>\u00a0in late January and early February.<\/p>\n Activists call Trump\u2019s priorities archaic<\/p>\n Environmental groups denounced the latest effort to boost coal, which comes as the Trump administration has clamped down on renewable energy, including freezing permits for\u00a0offshore wind projects<\/a>, ending\u00a0clean energy tax credits<\/a>\u00a0and blocking wind and solar projects on federal lands.<\/p>\n \u201cPropping up coal billionaires with taxpayer money is one more way for the Trump administration to put polluters first and put the rest of us at risk,\u201d said Kit Kennedy, managing director for power at the Natural Resources Defense Council. \u201cWhat\u2019s next, a taxpayer bailout to build new phone booths?\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s order will result in higher electricity bills and dirtier air, Kennedy and other critics said. \u201cThe best thing for the air, the climate and our utility bills is to let these plants retire peacefully,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Rich Nolan, president and CEO of the National Mining Association, said coal generation helps shield consumers from the impacts of volatile energy prices and supply challenges exacerbated by AI.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s strategy will \u201censure that upgrades to existing energy assets are made\u201d domestically, \u201cand at our ports to ensure that U.S. coal can answer the world\u2019s needs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Coal once provided more than half of U.S. electricity production, but its share dropped to about 15% in 2024, down from about 45% as recently as 2010. Natural gas provides about 43% of U.S. electricity, with the remainder from nuclear energy and renewables such as wind, solar and hydropower.<\/p>\n Coal exports have dropped<\/p>\n U.S. coal exports dropped during the first year of Trump\u2019s second term, largely due to less coal being shipped to China after it imposed reciprocal tariffs on American products last year in response to broad tariffs announced by Trump, according to the Energy Information Administration.<\/p>\n Global coal demand rose to record levels in recent years but is expected to flatten or decline in coming years, according the International Energy Agency.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard for U.S. companies to expand into new markets because there are plentiful reserves of coal around the globe.<\/p>\n Even so, Trump has pushed to revive coal exports on the West Coast. Coal miners have long sought to ship coal from Utah and the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming to markets in Asia.<\/p>\n Developers are fighting the city of Oakland to build an export terminal on the site of a decommissioned Army base. Community members and advocacy groups have voiced concerns over how trains loaded with coal will affect public health, safety and the environment.<\/p>\n Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump is again seeking to boost the struggling U.S. coal industry, including supporting the construction of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-347571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CoalAP.jpg\")
The coal-burning TransAlta power plant near Centralia, Washington, on April 29, 2011. (Ted S. Warren\/AP Photo)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/OaklandGetty.jpg\")
Trump\u2019s plan will also help restart a shuttered coal-fired power plant in Maryland and support construction of a long-delayed coal export terminal in Oakland. (Joe Sohm\/Visions of America\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)<\/p>\n