US President Trump announced on Thursday (June 4) that he would allocate approximately $700 million (about S$900 million) to support US coal-fired power plants and ship these carbon-intensive fuels to Asia, with most of the funding coming from Cold War-era emergency authorizations.
According to reports from Reuters and AFP, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act of 1950 to allocate $425 million to upgrade 13 coal-fired power plants and $75 million to support the proposed West Gateway coal export terminal project in Oakland, California.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced on the same day that it would provide $350 million in funding to support four selected coal modernization and reliability projects to enhance coal-fired power generation capacity, improve grid reliability, and strengthen strategic energy infrastructure. These projects include the construction of a new coal-fired power plant each in Alaska and West Virginia, the upgrading of a coal-fired power plant in Guayama, Puerto Rico, and the restart of a coal-fired power plant in Maryland that was shut down in 2024.
Trump said the new initiative would divert $200 million from climate change projects to a coal-fired power plant in Maryland and two new power plants in Alaska and West Virginia.
Trump has frequently called human-caused climate change "a hoax." After being re-elected president last year, he continued to pursue policies that supported the coal industry, signing several executive orders aimed at expanding coal mining and coal-fired power generation capacity since taking office.
Coal is the fuel with the highest greenhouse gas emissions and is one of the main factors contributing to climate change.
Source: [Lianhe Zaobao] (https://www.zaobao.com/news/world/story20260605-9160363)