President Trump just used the Defense Production Act — a wartime authority designed for national emergencies — to hand $700 million in taxpayer money to coal plants, coal mines, and coal export terminals across the United States. Two brand new coal plants will be built. Fourteen existing ones will be kept alive. All in the name of what Trump calls "clean, beautiful coal."

Coal is not clean. It is the dirtiest fossil fuel on the planet. Research estimates that air pollution from coal plants alone contributed to as many as 460,000 deaths in the United States between 1999 and 2020. Coal gives off toxic particles that cause respiratory disease, heart problems, and cancer. It is a leading driver of the climate crisis.

And it is more expensive than the alternatives. Experts say coal plants cost more to build and operate than renewable energy sources. U.S. coal production is less than half of what it was in 2008. More people now work at Waffle Houses across America than in coal mines.

Trump is using emergency wartime powers to bail out a dying industry — with your money — while dismantling the environmental rules that protect communities from coal's toxic pollution. Every dollar going to coal is a dollar not going to clean energy, lower electricity bills, or the communities already being poisoned by coal plant emissions.

We're calling on Congress to block the use of the Defense Production Act for coal subsidies and reverse this $700 million giveaway to the fossil fuel industry.