Trump Administration Moves on Coal After PTF Roadmap Warned of Electricity Affordability Crisis
Last August, Power The Future released a roadmap warning that America was heading toward an electricity affordability crisis unless policymakers stopped retiring reliable power and started rebuilding the firm generation needed to keep the lights on. Electricity rates kept rising, but now relief is on the way.
The report’s recommendations were direct:
- Use the Defense Production Act to secure firm generation, particularly in coal,
- Build new fossil fuel plants,
- Halt premature closures,
- And expand existing coal capacity.
Last week, the Trump administration moved on all four in one sweep.
The Department of Energy announced a sweeping coal package designed to strengthen grid reliability, support American coal workers, and protect families from rising electricity costs. The announcement included $500 million in Defense Production Act funding, support for 13 coal plants, funding for upgrades and extended operations, recommissioning work at the Warrior Run plant in Maryland, and early-stage support for two new coal-powered plants in Alaska and West Virginia.
That is a big deal.
PTF’s number one recommendation was to use the Defense Production Act for firm, dispatchable power. That was not a generic energy talking point. It was a specific call to treat reliable electricity as a national security priority. Now DOE is deploying DPA funds to protect coal capacity and strengthen domestic energy infrastructure.
As Power The Future warned in August:
“The federal government already has the tools to respond quickly to threats to national security, and a reliable grid is national security.”
The administration also acted on the rest of the roadmap. PTF called for building new fossil fuel plants; DOE is backing projects assessing new coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia. PTF called for halting premature closures; the administration has used emergency authority to keep needed power online and is supporting recommissioning at Warrior Run. PTF called for expanding existing coal capacity; DOE is directing hundreds of millions of dollars toward upgrades and extended operations at existing plants.
This is what an affordability-first energy agenda looks like.
For years, the left treated coal plants as political trophies to be shut down, regardless of whether replacement power was ready. Families paid the price through higher bills, weaker reliability, and a grid increasingly unable to meet new demand from AI, manufacturing, and electrification.
President Trump inherited that problem. His administration is now taking serious steps to fix it.
Credit where it is due: this coal action is exactly the kind of reality-based energy policy America needs. Reliable power is not optional.
The war on coal drove up costs, and now, rebuilding reliable power can bring them back down.
June 10, 2026