The plan would steer roughly $700 million toward coal plants, coal projects, and coal exports, using authority that traces back to the Cold War.

LiveNOW from FOX reported on June 4, 2026, that the President intends to use national defense powers to send about $700 million to aid coal facilities.

The current reporting says the package is expected to move through the Defense Production Act, the same kind of authority Washington reaches for when a capability is too important to leave exposed.

Washington Examiner reported that President Trump planned three funding announcements in the Oval Office for current and future coal plants, coal export terminals, and restarting existing coal plants.

The reported breakdown shows where the leverage goes.

More than $425 million would go to 13 coal-based plants, about $185 million would match corporate funding for projects in Alaska, Maryland, and West Virginia, and another $75 million would support a coal export terminal in Northern California.

The legal foundation was laid earlier this spring. The White House made the national security finding in its April determination:

Consistent with that declaration, I find that ensuring reliable coal supply chains and baseload power generation capacity is essential to United States national defense. Coal mining and logistics, terminals, stockpile, and power generation facilities provide indispensable resilience to our power grids that cannot be replaced.

Without sufficient coal-fired baseload power, the United States will lack the stable electricity required to support defense installations, industrial expansion, and the high-energy demands of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence.

Therefore, by the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (the “Act”) (50 U.S.C. 4533), I hereby determine, pursuant to section 303(a)(5) of the Act, that: (1) coal supply chains and baseload power generation capacity, including coal mining, rail and barge logistics, export and domestic terminals, generating unit availability and life-extension work, on-site stockpiles, and associated reliability updates, are industrial resources, materials, or critical technology items essential to the national defense;

That is the energy argument behind the new coal push.

AI needs enormous power. Military bases, factories, homes, and towns need steady power too.

Baseload coal does not flicker when the wind dies or the sun sets. It runs.

The Department of Energy put the broader goal in plain terms on June 4:

For coal country, that message is not abstract.

West Virginia knows what a closed plant does to a town, and so do communities across the country that watched Washington try to retire coal out of existence.

This plan says the opposite.

If the package lands as currently reported, it sends a signal beyond the dollar figure. It puts coal back inside the country’s definition of what it needs to defend itself.

https://wltreport.com/2026/06/04/president-trump-reaches-for-cold-war-powers-to-save-american-coal/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=president-trump-reaches-for-cold-war-powers-to-save-american-coal