WASHINGTON–President Donald Trump signed four executive actions on Tuesday aimed at protecting and bolstering America’s coal industry.
Trump signed the orders during an East Room event, attended by key Cabinet members like Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin.
.@POTUS signs executive orders to:
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 8, 2025
— Reinvigorate America's beautiful clean coal industry
— Lift Biden-era restrictions on coal plants
— Strengthen the reliability and security of the electric grid
— Protect American energy from overreach by radical leftists in the states pic.twitter.com/Wf9KzjQRCs
The first was an order that “directs all departments and agencies of the federal government to end all discriminatory policies against the coal industry,” White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf announced at the signing ceremony.
“This ends the leasing moratorium that prevents new coal projects on federal land, and it’s going to accelerate all permitting and funding for new coal projects to allow the coal industry to flourish under your leadership,” Scharf told Trump.
The second action imposes a moratorium on the policies from the previous administration that threaten coal plants around the country.
“There are currently dozens of coal plants in America that are in imminent danger of being forced to close based on unscientific and unrealistic policies enacted by the Biden administration,” Scharf noted.
“What we are going to do is essentially impose a moratorium on those policies taking effect to protect coal plants that are currently operating to ensure they are able to continue producing power, and continue providing jobs to Americans in the coal industry,” he continued.
Per a White House fact sheet, the proclamation “allows certain coal plants to comply with a less stringent version of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule for two years,” rather than the more strict standards the Biden administration implemented.
A third order deals with securing the grid and making it more reliable.
“This executive order is going to promote grid security and reliability by ensuring, in part, that our grid policies are focused on secure and effective energy production and energy transmission as opposed to woke policies that discriminate against secure sources of power like coal and other fossil fuels,” Scharf said.
The fourth action instructs the Department of Justice to investigate anti-coal policies put forth by Democrat-run states, which the administration believes are unconstitutional.
“One of the biggest problems we have in this space is Democrat states, radical leftist states enacting policies and enacting an agenda that discriminates against coal, against secure sources of energy,” Scharf stated, adding that many such policies are illegal and unconstitutional.
“With this executive order, you’re going to be instructing your Department of Justice to vigorously pursue and investigate these state policies that we believe are illegal or unconstitutional,” he added.
