Trump plans $700 million in new coal support, White House official says

President Donald Trump is planning to use Cold War-era national defense powers to send nearly $700 million to support coal facilities, according to a White House official.

Trump could announce as soon as Thursday that he will invoke the Defense Production Act, the 1950 law granting presidents wide authority over national security-related industries, to upgrade more than a dozen coal power plants, build a massive West Coast coal export terminal and match corporate funds to build new power plants, the official said.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity to not preempt the president's announcement, and cautioned that the details could still change. 

The Trump administration has framed energy issues in existential terms as it eyes the domestic need to sustain power-hungry artificial-intelligence data centers and aims to marginalize foreign adversaries that hold large fossil fuel reserves. Coal, though, has faced steady declines in U.S. usage. It once accounted for more than half of U.S. electricity generation, but fell to less than one-fifth in recent years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Power producers have largely switched to cheaper natural gas and renewable sources, wary of fossil fuel's effect on the planet's warming climate and increasing reliance on brittle global supply chains.

Of the $700 million, more than half will fund 13 coal plant upgrades, $185 million will match corporate funds for coal facilities in Alaska, Maryland and West Virginia, and $75 million will support the long-proposed West Gateway export terminal in Northern California.