Climate Politics

Trump Signs Orders to Expand Coal Power, Invoking AI Boom

A coal-fired power plant in West Virginia, US. The fossil fuel accounts for about 15% of the country's power generation.

Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg
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President Donald Trump signed a raft of measures he boasted would expand the mining and use of coal inside the US, a bid to power the boom in energy-hungry data centers and revive a flagging US fossil fuel industry.

Trump said he was “taking historic action to help American workers, miners, families and consumers,” as he set in motion wide-ranging initiatives to promote electricity made from coal, including with legal strikes targeting state regulations and policies that deter the fossil fuel’s use.