![\"Solar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/06102026solarpanelscoal.png\")
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Coal smokestacks looms behind an array of solar panels.chuyu\/iStock\/Getty via Grist<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tGet your news from a source that\u2019s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally published by\u00a0Grist<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0is reproduced here as part of the\u00a0Climate Desk<\/a>\u00a0collaboration.<\/p>\n Solar energy just provided more electricity in the United States than coal for the first time on record\u2014marking a milestone for the rise of renewables in America.\u00a0<\/p>\n While gas and nuclear plants still lead the country\u2019s energy mix, solar contributed 12.8 percent of the nation\u2019s electrons in May, according to an analysis of government data by\u00a0Ember<\/a>, an energy think tank. Coal, meanwhile, provided just 12.2 percent. Just five years ago, solar was less than half of its current levels and coal was at 20 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOvertaking coal for the first month on record shows just how far solar has come, from a niche contributor to the third-largest and fastest-growing source of power in the US electricity system,\u201d said Nicolas Fulghum, senior data analyst at Ember, in a press release. \u201cFrom Texas to California, markets across the US are betting on solar to meet rising power needs.\u201d<\/p>\n The turnaround comes even as political headwinds have shifted against renewable energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSpending $700 million to bail out the coal industry is like throwing a lifeline to a ship that has already sunk.\u201d<\/p>\n Last summer, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act<\/a>, which rolled back enormous swaths of former President Joe Biden\u2019s landmark climate change legislation, the\u00a02022 Inflation Reduction Act<\/a>. And President Donald Trump has actively sought to hinder renewable energy development, even\u00a0offering to pay at least one oil company $1 billion<\/a>\u00a0to stop building its offshore wind projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n The latest electricity data comes the same month that the Trump administration announced $700 million in funding for investments in the coal industry. It included money for what would be the country\u2019s first new coal-fired power plants in 13 years\u2014sourced from funds previously dedicated to reducing the country\u2019s dependence on fossil fuels, not deepening it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cToday we\u2019re 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,\u201d said\u00a0Trump<\/a>, who campaigned on the coal-friendly slogan \u2018dig, baby, dig.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Ember\u2019s analysis found that coal generation in May was actually up slightly from April, when it hit an all-time low. Its share of the grid will also likely tick up in the summer, as cooling needs peak. But the steady downward trend over the last several years suggests that even all the president\u2019s men might not be able to put the coal industry back together again.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSpending $700 million to bail out the coal industry is like throwing a lifeline to a ship that has already sunk,\u201d Lena Moffitt, executive director of the environmental group Evergreen Action,\u00a0told the Associated Press<\/a>. Rich Nolan, president and CEO of the National Mining Association disagreed, telling the AP that coal generation helps shield consumers from the impacts of volatile energy prices and supply challenges exacerbated by AI.<\/p>\n Regardless of what coal does, experts believe the solar market will continue its upward march. While installations dropped in 2025 compared to 2024, according to\u00a0the Solar Energy Industry Association<\/a>, it still accounted for more than half of all newly installed electricity capacity. Even\u00a0MAGA influencers are promoting<\/a>\u00a0it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to just keep seeing more and more renewables brought onto the grid,\u201d said Patrick Drupp, director of climate policy at the Sierra Club. \u201cThat\u2019s good for people\u2019s wallets, it\u2019s good for their health, it\u2019s good for the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coal smokestacks looms behind an array of solar panels.chuyu\/iStock\/Getty via Grist Get your news from a source that\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-698125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}