Business & Economics
Trump Orders Pentagon to Procure Coal Power Amid Record Renewable Gains
On 11 Feb 2026 President Trump signed an executive order compelling the Department of Defense to sign long-term power-purchase deals with U.S. coal-fired plants, reversing their planned retirements and injecting federal demand into a fuel now at a 16 % share of the U.S. grid.
Focusing Facts
- The order directs the Pentagon to source electricity from coal units within 100 miles of bases, potentially locking contracts that extend past Trump’s term ending 2029.
- Coal provided ~16 % of U.S. electricity in 2025, down from over 40 % a decade earlier, while the EU generated 30.1 % of its power from wind and solar, overtaking fossil fuels for the first time.
- China commissioned 78 GW of new coal capacity in 2025—more than India added in the previous decade—even as it installed 315 GW of solar and saw a 1 % emissions dip.
Context
Presidents have invoked national-security rationing of energy before—Harry Truman’s 1950 Korean-War steel order and Richard Nixon’s 1973 Project Independence after the OPEC shock—but rarely to prop up a single declining fuel. Trump’s mandate echoes 1930s agricultural price supports: using government purchasing power to create artificial demand. It collides with a century-long arc of decarbonisation now accelerating as modular renewables outcompete coal on cost; in 2025 global solar additions topped 300 GW and the EU’s grid tipped past fossil fuels, milestones reminiscent of the 1880s shift from wood to coal. Whether the order endures beyond this administration will test structural trends—cheap batteries, carbon accounting, investor pressure—against political intervention and energy-security rhetoric. On a 100-year timescale the order may register as a rear-guard action slowing, but not stopping, coal’s retreat, much like the UK’s 1926 Coal Mines Act briefly did before North Sea oil and gas rewrote its energy mix.
Perspectives
U.S. coal industry executives and allied Republican officials
U.S. coal industry executives and allied Republican officials — They argue new federal support such as Trump’s Pentagon purchasing order proves coal will remain indispensable for energy security and well-paid jobs for decades. The sources are financially or politically tied to coal, so they spotlight reliability and economic benefits while glossing over coal’s higher costs and environmental damage called out in other coverage.
Environment-minded, left-leaning national media
Environment-minded, left-leaning national media — They frame Trump’s directive as an expensive bailout for the dirtiest power source, insisting wind and solar are already cheaper and more dependable for the grid. Their coverage stresses coal’s drawbacks and Trump’s market intervention, which may underplay current grid-balancing challenges and the political hurdles renewables still face.
International climate and energy reporters tracking the clean-energy transition
International climate and energy reporters tracking the clean-energy transition — They highlight surging solar and wind in China and the EU as evidence the world is approaching a structural decline in emissions, though coal remains a complicating factor. Eagerness to showcase ‘turning-point’ narratives can lead them to overlook lingering dependence on coal in China and India that other analyses warn about.