WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 — President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Defense Department to pursue long‑term power purchase agreements with coal‑fired power plants to supply military installations, a move announced at a White House event on Wednesday, the White House order and CNBC reported.
The order and a companion fact sheet say those contracts should prioritize grid reliability, on‑site fuel security and mission assurance for defense and intelligence facilities, while implementation remains subject to applicable law and appropriations, according to the order and the White House fact sheet.
White House event and funding
The signing took place during a White House “Clean Beautiful Coal” event that included senior energy and interior officials, and the administration framed the program as a national‑security reliability measure, Fox News reported and CNBC noted.
Trump also directed the Department of Energy to award funds to keep coal units running or upgrade facilities in states including West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina and Kentucky, an element highlighted by CNBC and Inside Climate News.
Energy-security rationale
The administration’s rationale centers on keeping a dependable baseload fleet for defense readiness and grid resilience, arguing that coal plants provide continuous, on‑demand power that can support mission‑critical sites, as the executive order states and the fact sheet reiterates.
The fact sheet also ties the policy to a declared national energy emergency and earlier 2025 directives aimed at supporting the coal sector and grid reliability, while the order frames coal as essential to national and economic security, the White House fact sheet says and the order states.
Criticism and next steps
Environmental and security analysts criticized the plan, arguing that coal is costly and misaligned with Defense Department recommendations for on‑site microgrids and distributed energy, Inside Climate News reported.
The order instructs federal agencies to identify applicable facilities and projects, but leaves contract execution to standard procurement processes and available funding, meaning implementation details will come in subsequent agency actions, as outlined in the order and the White House fact sheet.
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Image Attribution ▾
Image: Meremere Coal Fired Power Station, Auckland
Credit: Archives New Zealand
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meremere_Coal_Fired_Power_Station,_Auckland._(36338633013).jpg (direct file: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Meremere_Coal_Fired_Power_Station%2C_Auckland._%2836338633013%29.jpg)
License: CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
Modifications: Cropped to 16:9 and resized to 1920×1080.
