Electric co-ops in the USA welcomed executive orders signed by Donald Trump on 8 April, with the stated goal of strengthening the reliability of the country’s electric grid and boosting its coal industry.
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), along with representatives from electric co-ops across the country, joined the president at the White House as he announced the new rules.
The orders will allow some older coal-fired power plants that were due to close down to keep producing electricity. They also designate coal as a “mineral,” tasking federal agencies with identifying and developing coal resources on federal lands. The orders remove regulatory barriers to coal production, promote coal exports and provide power plants with potential exemptions from rules imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The Trump administration says the measures will help to meet the growing energy needs of AI data centres.
Tony Campbell, president and CEO of Winchester-based East Kentucky Power Cooperative, who was present at the announcement, welcomed the measures.
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“On behalf of East Kentucky Power Cooperative, NRECA and electric co-ops across America, thank you for your leadership to restore American energy dominance,” Campbell said at the event. “America must keep coal plants open and running to ensure reliable electricity when we need it most,” he said. “To meet growing demand over the next decade and ensure fuel security, America will need more always-available power, such as coal.”
Campbell then thanked Trump for “providing immediate, much-needed relief from the Biden [administration] EPA regulations that would force the shutdown of critical coal units”.
Trump’s orders grant coal plants an exemption of up to two years from EPA mercury and air rule for utilities that have submitted an exemption request to the agency. NRECA claims the mercury and air rule is “extremely costly” and fails to account for cost-effective new technologies that enables electric co-ops to meet the goal of a 67% cut in filterable particulate matter for all coal-fired plants.
Under the rule, power plants which could not meet the standards would have to retire – which, NRECA argued, threatened reliability at a time of growing electricity demand. The apex also argues that the role has “no appreciable health benefits”.
“Today’s announcements help drive home smart energy policies that will support efforts to keep the lights on at a price families and businesses can afford,” said NRECA CEO Jim Matheson. “We thank the administration for recognising the continued importance of always-available resources in the nation’s energy mix.”
The executive orders were criticised by environmental group Greenpeace as an “attempt by a desperate industry to cling to power while communities suffer”.
“From the Gulf Coast to the Los Angeles area, people are being slammed by floods, wildfires, and record heat. But instead of helping Americans, Trump is launching a political attack on states that are trying to create a livable future for their people,” said Greenpeace USA’s deputy climate programme director, John Noël.
“This order isn’t about ‘freedom’ or ‘energy independence’,” he added. “It’s about big oil CEOs using the federal government to crush states’ rights when it aligns with their fossil fuel agenda. It’s also a convenient distraction from the economic sabotage of working families and the fossil fuel industry’s covert push for blanket immunity in Congress from all climate accountability.
“Fossil fuel companies have profited off the backs of everyday people for far too long, and we have the chance to make them pay to clean up their mess. Right now, states should be leaning into climate superfund legislation, not away from it. Nothing in this order prevents states from doing so. And the many states that are already considering these types of bills, like California, should be passing them expeditiously.”
A 2023 study by researchers at George Mason University, the Harvard School of Public Health and UT Austin found that for every 1 μg/m3 increase in coal PM2.5, mortality increased by 1.12%.
CO2 emissions from burning coal for energy accounted for about 19% of total US energy-related CO2 emissions and for about 55% of total CO2 emissions from the electric power sector in 2022, according to EPA data.
