Trump administration backs 90 of 184 operating US coal plants, analysis finds

Report counts $950m in taxpayer funds and 70 Clean Air Act exemptions

Almost half of the coal plants still operating on the US grid have received support from the Trump administration, according to a new analysis by the Environmental Defense Fund. The analysis examined the 184 operating coal plants connected to the grid and found that 90 received support through “cash handouts, free passes to pollute, and requirements to stay online past their retirement dates”. The support has helped the plants continue operating despite economic and regulatory headwinds, the analysis found.

The administration provided $950m in taxpayer dollars to 24 coal plants and handed Clean Air Act exemptions from toxic pollution limits to 70 plants, according to the analysis.

“It’s extending the life of these coal plants,” said Surbhi Sarang, director and senior attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund. “The administration has leveraged a multitude of tools to prop up coal plants, and ultimately all of that is harming Americans even more by increasing electricity costs, by increasing pollution – it’s like Americans are getting hit twice.”

The exemptions relate to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which first took effect in 2015 and drove dangerous pollution from power plants down by more than 90%. The EPA updated the standards in 2024 to further reduce harmful pollution from coal-fired plants. Among other changes, the 2024 fine particulate matter standard reduced allowable emissions of nickel, arsenic, lead and other toxic metals from coal plants by two-thirds.

In the early days of the second Trump term, companies were invited to email the administration to request an exemption from the 2024 standards. According to emails the Environmental Defense Fund obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, companies expressed concern that the standards would cost them too much money.

One recipient of relief was the Colstrip plant in Montana, which has operated for more than 40 years and affects nearby communities, including the Northern Cheyenne reservation, by releasing toxic chemicals including mercury, arsenic, lead and nickel. “That’s one of the dirtiest coal plants that’s still operating in the nation,” Sarang said.

NorthWestern Energy and Talen Energy, which own and operate Colstrip, requested an exemption from the fine particulate matter requirement, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. In March 2025, NorthWestern’s president and chief executive, Brian Bird, wrote an email to the Department of Energy asking for a 15-minute chat about the standards with administrator Lee Zeldin, arguing that it would cost $500m to comply with the new rule. “It is ludicrous that our customers would have to cover the costs of a $500m investment for such a slight improvement to particulate matter capture,” Bird wrote.

The administration gave NorthWestern an exemption from complying with the 2024 updated standards, and went on to repeal those standards in February. Sarang said Colstrip has not installed modern pollution controls that could reduce emissions, and would have had to upgrade its equipment had the updated standards applied. “It would have had pretty significant impacts on air pollution,” she said.

NorthWestern, which became Colstrip’s majority owner earlier this year, describes the coal plant as a “dependable bridge to a cleaner energy future” that supplies reliable energy “until viable, equivalent, carbon-free energy resources are commercially available”.

Asked to comment on the analysis, the company said its technology at Colstrip is “state of the art” for removing sulphur dioxide and is 99.6% efficient in removing filterable particulate emissions. The company said the updated 2024 federal standards would have required it to become 99.8% efficient by 2028, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, and said its mercury emission control at the plant meets current state and federal requirements.

Another plant that received an exemption from the administration is the WA Parish coal plant in Thompsons, Texas, outside Houston. Community members living nearby have called for it to be shut down, citing its carbon dioxide emissions and what they say are “hazardous” levels of particulate matter.

The plant’s owner, NRG, asked the Department of Energy for an exemption covering all of its coal-fired facilities, including WA Parish, arguing in an email obtained by the Environmental Defense Fund that its facilities would not be able to comply with the new standards and would need to “derate in order to comply”, taking megawatts off the grid in “critical areas”. NRG wrote that complying with the regulations “with razor thin margins” would risk the affordability and reliability of the grid. NRG did not respond to a request to comment.

A 2018 Rice University study found the plant is responsible for as many as 177 premature deaths each year from PM 2.5, particles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs that raise rates of respiratory diseases, heart attacks and strokes. “Our research has shown that WA parish is the deadliest power plant in Texas,” said Daniel Cohan, a professor at Rice.

Cohan said plants across the country were supposed to meet the 2024 updated standards. “Trump is letting them off the hook from the more stringent version of the standard,” he said. “It lets them stay open longer.” He added that many coal plants are “barely on the edge of breaking even”, so regulations forcing them to spend more money to clean up their pollution are likely to cause some to retire and be replaced by cheaper and cleaner sources.

The White House defended its support for the coal industry in a statement. “The Democrats’ energy-subtraction policies shuttered American coal plants that provided reliable, affordable power to families and businesses when they needed it most,” wrote Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson. “President Trump promised to revive America’s coal industry, and the Trump Administration has backed and saved more than 100 coal plants this term. By championing beautiful, clean coal, President Trump has prevented the retirement of more than 17 gigawatts of power and saved lives during heightened demand periods.”