The Wittelest Pwesident Orders DOD To Buy Electricity From Coal-Burning Power Plants - And He Gets A Pwize!!!!

[hatrack]

President Donald Trump plans to announce an executive order on Wednesday directing the U.S. Department of Defense to buy electricity from coal-fired power plants. The order, first reported by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed by a White House official, comes as the administration plans to repeal the endangerment finding, a landmark climate ruling that determined greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health.

“President Trump will be taking the most significant deregulatory actions in history to further unleash American energy dominance and drive down costs,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a written statement. Environmental and security advocates blasted the order. “It’s expensive, it’s outdated, and it just puts us at risk,” said Erin Sikorsky, director of the Center for Climate & Security at The Council on Strategic Risks. “Coal is just going backwards, not forwards, for the Department of Defense.”

EDIT

The Department of Defense stated that it needed $5.1 billion to mitigate climate risk, according to a 2024 U.S. Government Accountability Office report. The Air Force estimated it would cost $3.6 billion to rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida after Hurricane Michael damaged it in 2018. The cost was part of the challenges the Department’s facilities face due to climate change and extreme weather, according to the GAO report.

EDIT

The Defense Department and U.S. Department of Energy are now working to identify which facilities and coal plants will be affected by the executive order. Separately, the administration will award funding to five coal plants in West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina and Kentucky to recommission and upgrade the facilities, the White House confirmed. In addition, Trump will receive the inaugural “Undisputed Champion of Coal” award on Wednesday from the Washington Coal Club, a pro-coal group with ties to the fossil fuel industry, an individual familiar with the organization said. The award will recognize the administration’s broad support of the coal industry, the individual said.

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10022026/trump-department-of-defense-coal-power/

[gab13by13]

1. Wonder if Krasnov ever saw the photos of Pittsburgh

during high coal usage and after coal usage?

Make America Gag Again.

[FakeNoose]

2. Pittsburgh 100 years ago - typical photo

Pittsburgh 1925, and I've seen many old photos like this. I believe the air was always this bad back in those days. The steel mills were the source of the smoke and smog. Steel mills operated inside the city limits, and surrounding hills caused the smog-bowl effect. The mills burned coal and smoke stacks of the time were not tall enough to channel mill exhaust out of the lower atmosphere.

As a teenager I moved to Pittsburgh in the 1960s and they still had occasional smog-days like this back then. I can remember smog so thick that you couldn't see more than 20 feet, but it would burn off after a couple hours. These days the mills are mostly closed, and the EPA's pollution-prevention regs have completely turned around the air and water quality of Pittsburgh.

[Ray Bruns]

3. And exactly how is the Defense Department, I'm sorry, the War Department supposed to

Accomplished this? When you’re on the grid, you don’t choose where your power comes from.

[70sEraVet]

5. I don't how other bases could accomplish it, but Fort Campbell in TN and KY....

Could do it. There is a coal-burning plant right across the Cumberland River that is currently scheduled to shut down, as it is being replaced by a natural gas plant being built. I would think they could run dedicated power lines to the base.
The big problem, is that the coal-burning plant is very old, as are, I assume, all the currently existing coal plants. Do we really want our 'War' Department to be dependent on 50 year old power infrastructure?

[70sEraVet]

4. So, if the 'Whale Oil Club' offered to award trump the ....

"Superiorist of All Supporters of Whale Oil" award, it would become mandatory for every home to install whale oil lamps?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. MaddowBlog-Coal industry latest to reward Trump with an unnecessary, made-up award

Let this be a lesson to those hoping to curry favor with the White House: If you haven’t visited a store that makes trophies, you’re making a mistake.

Link to tweet

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/coal-industry-latest-to-reward-trump-with-an-unnecessary-made-up-award

Republican Party orthodoxy on government subsidies for private industry tends to be straightforward: Industries should rise and fall based on market forces, not politicians picking winners and losers. It’s the same GOP philosophy that says that if a private industry, especially one that’s been around for a while, needs the government to give it taxpayer money, that looks less like capitalism and more like socialism.

Donald Trump, however, makes occasional exception to these rules. The New York Times reported:

President Trump on Wednesday directed the Pentagon to start buying more electricity from coal-burning power plants as part of his efforts to revive the declining coal industry.

Mr. Trump signed an executive order directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to enter into long-term contracts with coal plants across the country to power military installations. The move could provide financial support to dozens of coal plants that might have otherwise been set to retire in the coming years.

“We’re going to be buying a lot of coal through the military now,” the Republican said at a White House event. “We’re lifting up our hardworking American miners like nobody has ever done before.”....

There was one element of the White House event, however, that stood out.

"Sir, to show our appreciation, the trophy says 'the undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal'"

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-11T21:56:52.736Z

.....This has been going on for a while now. Shortly after Trump left office in 2021, following his defeat in the 2020 election, the National Republican Senatorial Committee made up an honor for him called the Champion for Freedom Award.

More recently, after the president’s begging didn’t lead to a Nobel Peace Prize, FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, concocted its own peace prize in the hopes of making Trump feel better.

Let this be a lesson to those hoping to curry favor with the White House: If you haven’t already visited a store that makes trophies, you’re making a mistake.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. This made me smile