Trump Preparing $700 Million Coal Support Package

Flue-gas stacks of a coal-fired power plant, seen from the Valley Village neighborhood in Louisville, Ky., on Feb. 14, 2026. Jon Cherry/Getty Images

President Donald Trump is preparing to direct nearly $700 million in federal support to the coal industry.

A White House official said Trump plans to announce as soon as Thursday that he will invoke the Defense Production Act, the 1950 Cold War-era law, to aid coal facilities nationwide. The funding would upgrade more than a dozen existing coal-fired power plants, match private corporate investments for new facilities in Alaska, Maryland, and West Virginia, and help build a major coal export terminal on the West Coast.