A day after the Trump administration acted to throttle offshore wind farms, it tossed two lifelines to coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel and a favored industry of the president.
The government ordered two coal-burning power plants in Indiana to continue operating past their scheduled closure dates while it also gave hundreds of coal plants an additional five years before they need to prevent toxic chemicals from leaching into sources of drinking water.
The dual moves late on Tuesday were part of the administration’s sweeping effort to bolster the struggling coal industry and avoid having coal plants close on President Trump’s watch.
The day before, the Trump administration had dealt a devastating blow to clean energy by ordering the suspension of five offshore wind projects that were under construction along the East Coast and poised to deliver power to more than 2.5 million homes and businesses.
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“Clearly this is a full-throttle attempt to help the fossil fuel industry and to hamper renewable energy,” said Sanya Carley, the director of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
Burning coal produces more planet-warming carbon dioxide than any other form of energy. It also emits mercury, a powerful neurotoxin, and other heavy metals.
While coal plants once generated nearly half of America’s electricity, they produced just 16 percent last year. Hundreds of coal units have retired since the mid-2000s as utilities switched to cheaper natural gas plants and wind and solar power.
Mr. Trump has been intent on reviving what he calls “beautiful, clean coal.” In a series of steps aimed at improving the economics of coal, the administration has opened more federal lands to coal mining, reduced the royalty rates that companies must pay the government to extract coal from public lands, offered $625 million in grants to upgrade coal plants and loosened limits on their emissions.
“Forcing these power plants to stay open is propping up the industry and it will likely lead to a small increase in mining and production, but long-term the trends are that coal is significantly more expensive than other alternatives,” Dr. Carley said.