WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is using emergency powers to prevent five coal plants from closing and has allocated millions of dollars in taxpayer funds for repairs and upgrades to extend the lives of additional plants. The administration has also slashed pollution limits to allow coal plants to operate without costly upgrades, part of a series of regulatory actions that exceed those taken during Trump's first term.

Before Trump returned to the White House, the Biden administration and many electric utilities were building a future dominated by renewable energy, aiming to replace coal with renewables to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution that kills more than a thousand people annually. Dozens of coal plants, which emit as much planet-warming pollution as 27 million cars, were expected to be retired during Trump's second term. Officials and the energy analysis company Enverus said there may not be any more coal plants closing until after Trump leaves office.

"The goal for coal plants is 100% stay open, no more retirements, no more shutting down." Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said. Stopping retirements entirely, as Burgum suggested, would keep about 34 gigawatts of coal power online that was set to retire before 2029. The administration has argued that coal produces power even during extreme weather and that renewables were subsidized by the Biden administration.

In Wheatfield, Indiana, a community oversaw construction of solar fields on farmland ahead of the expected retirement of the Schahfer Generating Station, a coal plant. The administration ordered the Schahfer plant to remain open, saying its power is critical to meet demand as electricity consumption grows with data center expansion. NIPSCO said in a company statement that an agreement with Amazon will protect customers.

The administration spent $175 million on upgrades to extend the lives of seven coal plants not ordered to stay open and is considering applications for $350 million in similar spending. Keeping one Michigan coal plant open for about seven months cost $135 million. Modernizing the aging fleet of U.S. coal plants to keep them open, make them more affordable, and reduce emissions could cost $1 billion annually.

Coal plants scheduled to retire emitted more than 130 million tons of carbon dioxide last year, along with tens of thousands of tons of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. "If we retire all the coal plants we could avoid those 2,000 deaths per year from coal. And if we keep the plants online and they keep burning coal, then we're going to get those emissions and see those same health impacts," George Mason University environmental engineer Lucas Henneman said.

The Environmental Protection Agency separately proposed weakened rules governing the safe disposal of coal ash, rolling back standards the Biden administration had strengthened. In 2024, the Biden administration eliminated exemptions that had been granted to some older coal ash sites. The Trump administration proposed easing standards for monitoring and protecting groundwater near some sites and scaling back rules requiring cleanup of entire coal plant properties instead of just ash dump sites. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the proposal reflects the agency's commitment to restoring American energy dominance, strengthening cooperative federalism, and accommodating unique circumstances at certain coal ash facilities.

Coal ash contains heavy metals, and improperly stored ash can contaminate groundwater. A coal ash dike failure in Tennessee in 2008 spread ash over 300 acres, and in 2014, tens of thousands of tons of coal ash spilled in North Carolina.