Trump Will Sign Executive Order In Bid To Keep Coal Alive

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Tuesday designed to revitalize coal-fired power plants and the American coal industry, according to a White House official.

The forthcoming order will direct administration officials to reclassify coal as a mineral under the terms of Executive Order 14241, which Trump signed in March to unlock and unleash the country’s coal resources, as well as take numerous other steps to boost the ailing industry, according to the White House official. Coal output and its use to generate power have both declined in the U.S. in recent years due in large part to aggressive regulation and climate policy from the Obama and Biden administrations.

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The order will instruct the relevant agencies to identify coal deposits on federally-controlled lands, and it will also direct Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to end the “Jewell moratorium,” which was a moratorium on new federal coal lease sales first imposed by Obama Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, according to the White House official. The forthcoming executive action will also direct the White House Council on Environmental Quality