Why America Might Find Coal In Its Stocking This Christmas — And Be Jolly

The United States is projected to generate more power from coal in 2025 than in 2024, though the resource has endured an assault from the executive branch, green groups and Congress in recent years.

America generated about 13 percent more energy from coal between January and October 2025 than it did during the same period in 2024, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. Though the Biden administration, prominent green groups like the Sierra Club and Congressional Democrats have worked to block coal projects and smother the industry in regulations, the energy resource continues to help meet America’s power needs.

Climate activists and some high-profile Democrats argue that coal pollutes the environment and should therefore be phased out of the U.S. energy profile. However, critics of this view contend that coal remains a reliable and affordable source of electricity that is impossible to replace on the accelerated timelines often mandated by blue states, forcing a trade-off between an expedited energy transition and maintaining sufficient power supply.

“If Santa leaves you coal this year, you’re obviously on the nice list,” Amy Cooke, co-founder and president of Always on Energy Research and the director of the Energy and Environmental Policy Center told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “In a winter of surging demand and cold temperatures, it’s coal plants … that are the workhorses of the electric grid, delivering round-the-clock, reliable, and affordable power to keep your Christmas lights burning bright.”

The Trump administration’s Department of Energy (DOE) has warned that continuing to retire reliable power without replacements could trigger 100-fold more blackouts in the U.S. by 2030. Meanwhile, the agency has issued multiple emergency orders aimed at keeping coal plants online amid power shortage concerns, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday extending that authority to two coal plants in Indiana.

“Keeping these coal plants online has the potential to save lives and is just common sense,” Wright said in a statement Wednesday. “Americans deserve reliable power regardless of whether the wind is blowing or the sun is shining during extreme winter conditions.”

Notably, blackouts that coincided with winter storms led to loss of life in Texas and New York in recent years. A recent North American Reliability Report (NERC) warned that “much of North America” is at risk of failing to meet demand in “extreme operating conditions,” with conditions mirroring that of 2021 before winter storm Uri devastated Texas.

NERC’s Reliability Assessments and Performance Analysis director, John Moura, said that “electricity demand continues to grow faster than the resources being added to the grid,” with the report noting that artificial intelligence (AI) data centers are increasing periods of high energy demand.

Now that data centers are increasingly driving up American electricity demand, about 60% of plans to retire oil, gas and coal plants along America’s largest power grid, PJM, have been postponed or cancelled this year, Reuters reportedTuesday.

Cooke told the DCNF that a Colorado utility’s extension of one coal plant past December helps secure more reliable power for her state, arguing that “without it, Colorado would face a darker, colder new year.”

“Coloradans are especially grateful for the early gift of sparing Comanche 2 from an arbitrary, politically driven retirement date of December 31,” Cooke said. “Extending this proven plant’s operation through 2026 isn’t nostalgia — it’s common sense at a time when reliability and affordability matter.”

Colorado is far from the only state that has aggressive mandates to support an energy transition that could result in high energy costs and a destabilized power grid, as most states with the top electricity costs are blue states with stringent profile goals, according to one recent analysis from Always on Energy Research and the Institute for Energy Research.

“Our grid should not be held hostage to one fuel for baseload power,” Energy and Environment Legal Institute Senior Fellow Steve Milloy told the DCNF, arguing that coal is a vital source of electricity for multiple reasons. “First, we have an abundance of it — hundreds of years’ worth of readily accessible reserves. Although the misguided climate and energy policies of the Obama and Biden administrations destroyed much of our coal infrastructure, much remains, and much can be rebuilt.”

Milloy also reasoned that coal is inexpensive to burn and that it powers America’s grid during periods of high demand more reliably than natural gas as “a coal plant with a pile of coal outside can more readily meet peak demand than a gas plant supplied by a pipeline with gas flowing in at 20 miles per hour.”

“There are communities all over America that thrived when coal was king, a scant 15 or so years ago,” Milloy told the DCNF. “They have suffered as a result of the Obama-Biden war on coal. These communities and their states could benefit greatly from a revived coal industry.”

Former President Joe Biden said he would shut coal “plants down all across America,” and adopted aggressive green energy policies that some top grid officials and watchdogs warned could weaken America’s power supply. In contrast, President Donald Trump has moved to bolster coal through a multi-agency agenda pushing for deregulation and projects to boost the sector.

CEO of the American Energy Institute Jason Isaac argued before Christmas in 2024 that “750 million people will wake up wishing for coal in their stockings.”

“That’s how many people around the world live without electricity, and billions more endure woefully sporadic access,” he continued, noting that affordable, reliable energy saves lives.
Isaac told the DCNF that “coal remains one of the world’s most relied upon sources of electricity, with global demand hitting record highs as countries like China and India prioritize reliable power.”

Though China and India have recently embraced more green energy technology like wind and solar, the nations have also constructed new coal plants and expanded capacity.

“In the United States, elitist politicians and utility executives dismantled our beautiful, clean coal fleet to satisfy Paris style virtue signaling, replacing it with taxpayer subsidized, China dependent, weather driven generation that sent electricity prices soaring,” Isaac told the DCNF. “The Green New Scam is the real Grinch, stealing billions from American families. This Christmas and for years to come, policies championed by President Donald Trump offer the best gift under the tree: affordable and reliable energy.”