science
DoE wants to keep 13 coal-fired power generators going at the same time as funding nuclear research
The Trump Administration is using Cold War-era rules to authorize up to $500 million in funding to keep 13 coal-fired power plants going and build a coal export terminal in California.America's Department of Energy (DoE) says it is securing the funding via the Defense Production Act (DPA), which grants the president authority to use federal financial incentives to stimulate private domestic industry deemed critical to national defense.At the same time, the DoE announced that one of the advanced nuclear reactor projects it has been sponsoring has achieved criticality ahead of a July 4 deadline set by President Trump.
That DPA funding includes up to $425 million for 12 projects to "expand and reinvigorate" the aging US coal power fleet, plus up to $75 million for the West Gateway Terminal Project in Oakland, California.
This will be an export terminal reached by rail, capable of handling more than 10 million tons annually, which the government hopes to export to nations such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Malaysia.The pretext for authorizing funding via the DPA is that the DoE is ensuring the US maintains the industrial capacity and energy resources it needs to strengthen national security.Those projects chosen are intended to keep domestic coal mining alive and support reliable baseload power generation to boost the resilience of critical energy infrastructure, the DoE said.The coal industry in America has been declining for decades. It delivered 578 million tons in 2023, less than half the amount produced in 2008 when coal production peaked, according to figures from the US Energy Information Administration.And according to a report from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), it was largely due to natural gas becoming cheaper, rather than green energy rules or clean air legislation, while solar and wind have also proved a competitive threat to coal.But the recent AI-driven datacenter build boom has pushed electricity demand upwards after years of stagnation, prompting coal-fired plants to stay online rather than retire.A group of environmental nonprofit organizations warned earlier this year that coal plants in America emit pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), both threatening human health, in addition to the greenhouse gases belched out.The DoE is at least pushing ahead with new nuclear reactor technology. One of its advanced reactor designs, the Mark-0 from Antares Nuclear, has successfully completed what the agency calls a zero-power fueled criticality demonstration at the Idaho National Laboratory.
