Wyoming Republican Gov. Mark Gordon joined President Trump in Washington, D.C., on Thursday as the president allocated $700 million in public money for the coal industry.
While calling Gordon a "great guy," the president invoked a Cold War-era law designed to boost energy production in the face of national security threats to allocate $700 million in public money for the coal industry.
The announcement enters a whirlwind of increasing demand for energy from AI-driven data centers, the legal greenlight for an Oakland, California, coal port; and the global energy and development race with China.
At the White House gathering, Gordon touted the comparative cleanliness of the coal Wyoming produces.
"When a kid grows up in Wyoming their education is paid for, in large part, by coal severance tax," said Gordon, adding that those same kids, when grown, can seek a job in the coal industry.
"It's not just digging coal like we used to," said the governor, "It's high-tech jobs."
The governor also referenced his recent trips to Japan and Taiwan, and said leaders there seek reliable, dispatchable and secure energy sources.
"They can't get it as clean as they can from the Powder River Basin," said Gordon. The building of a coal port in Oakland, California - which part of the $700 million grant is slated to fast-track - is "absolutely essential for the lifeblood of our state and our coal mines," he added.
Gordon thanked the president for his vision.
About Trump’s $700 Million Grant
Coal leasing on federal land in the Powder River Basin — a coal trove centered mostly in Wyoming — has brought in billions of dollars in revenue to the state and its coal mining industry, as it supplies roughly 40% of the thermal coal needed by power plants owned by electric utilities in the United States.
President Donald Trump’s Thursday announcement lists three key objectives:
• Allocate $425 million to bolster 13 coal plants across the country;
• Allocate $75 million to boost construction of a coal export terminal in Oakland — a project Wyoming’s coal industry has long sought to uncork the Asian buyer market;
• Send another $200 million in U.S. Department of Energy grant money to help build two new coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia — the first new U.S. coal plants since 2013 — and restart a Maryland coal plant.
Companies in each of those states are expected to match that money or exceed it with their own investments, the announcement says.
The first two appropriations hinge on the Defense Production Act of 1950. The act of Congress calls U.S. security dependent on the nation’s own ability to supply materials and services for national defense “and to prepare for and respond to military conflicts” as well as disasters and terrorism.
The act authorizes the president to elevate national defense contracts over other government contracts, to interfere with the civilian market only where scarcities impede national defense, and incentivize the production of “critical components,” critical technology and other recourse needed “for the execution of the national security strategy of the United States.”
Smells Like Coal
When state Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, walked into a Riverton elementary school for a tour in 2019, he sniffed aloud and said, “Smells like coal.”
The state has long depended on the commodity for revenue.
Coal production in Wyoming peaked in 2008, when the Powder River Basin produced nearly 450 million tons of coal, and has trended unsteadily downward since then.
Wyoming surface coal production has fallen by 59.1% over the past 16 years. Thermal coal, which Wyoming produces, has seen lower demand in recent years.
That’s from coal-fired power plants either retiring or lowering their demand nationally as the market has shifted to both natural gas and renewable energy.
Calendar year 2024 marked the first time Wyoming coal production had fallen below 200 million tons since 1992.
The industry saw it as a dark year, as President Joe Biden’s U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a rule at that time aimed to end Wyoming coal by 2041.
Coal in 2025 yielded $134 million in severance taxes for Wyoming – the lowest since 2003.
That’s 19.5% of Wyoming’s severance tax haul, with oil generating 54.9% and natural gas yielding 21.9%.
Accolades
U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis lauded Trump's Thursday announcement, calling it "exactly the leadership our nation needs."
"The growing demands of AI and modern industry require more affordable, reliable electricity which coal delivers,' said Lummis in a statement. "The West Gateway export terminal alone will open critical new pathways for Wyoming coal to reach global markets. Americans cannot afford an energy policy that leaves them in the dark, and with this investment, President Trump is making sure they never will."
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
