This article was originally published at Independent Women on June 10, 2026, and republished with permission from the author.
By Sarah Montalbano
The Department of Energy announced on June 4th that it would invest up to $850 million to build, restart, and modernize U.S. coal plants. The funds will build two new coal-fired plants, one in Anchorage and the other in Mt. Storm, West Virginia, totaling 2.85 gigawatts (GW). They will be the first new commercial U.S. coal plants to come online since 2013.
The package splits three ways: $350 million under DOE’s “Restoring Reliability” initiative for the two new builds, a 510 megawatt (MW) retrofit in Puerto Rico, and recommissioning of the 205 MW AES Warrior Run plant in Cumberland, Maryland; $425 million in Defense Production Act Title III funding across twelve fleet modernization projects, with the largest awards to East Kentucky Power Cooperative ($90.6 million) and TVA’s Cumberland Fossil Plant ($46.3 million); and $75 million for the West Gateway Terminal in Oakland, a marine export terminal aimed at Indo-Pacific markets.
Anchorage is an odd choice for a new coal-fired plant only if you ignore Alaska’s geography. The University of Alaska Fairbanks completed a $245 million combined heat and power coal plant in 2018 to replace boilers from 1964, fueled by the Usibelli Mine roughly 100 miles south. Fairbanks has no natural gas pipeline, and locally mined coal was the only practical option.
Anchorage does have gas, but Cook Inlet production has been declining for years. A report commissioned by local gas utility Enstar concluded it would be “risky and unadvisable under current market conditions” to count on Cook Inlet supplies past 2026. Hilcorp’s price to Matanuska Electric Association just rose 14%, with contractual increases pushing it up 49% by 2028. Railbelt utilities are planning LNG import terminals for the first cargoes by the late 2020s. Importing LNG into a state that sits on the Slope is an awkward solution at any price.
Coal is cost-competitive when it is allowed to operate. Always On Energy Research’s modeling of Indiana finds existing coal generates power at roughly $55 per megawatt hour (MWh), while firmed wind reaches $129 per MWh and firmed solar $159 per MWh. FERC Form 1 data show the average U.S. coal plant generated electricity for $34 per MWh in 2020, and could fall to $29/MWh if the fleet ran above 80% capacity factor instead of the 43% it averaged in 2024. Imported liquified natural gas (LNG) at $12 to $14 per one million British Thermal Units (MMBtu) makes new coal-burning local fuel competitive against gas-fired generation.
The claim that coal is dirty also lags the data by three decades. Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emissions from the power sector dropped 94% since 2005, and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions are down 88% since 1990, driven by scrubbers, selective catalytic reduction, and baghouses on coal units. UAF’s new plant runs a circulating fluidized bed boiler with the nation’s lowest guaranteed PM2.5 emissions rate for a coal unit, and emits 20% of the NOx of the boilers it replaced.
The Obama-era Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, the Clean Power Plan, and the Biden EPA’s 2024 greenhouse gas rule each layered compliance costs onto a fleet that was still profitable to operate. Under the Biden-era rules, the U.S. coal fleet would have collapsed from 168 GW in 2024 to just 62.6 GW by 2031, with a near-total wipeout of coal by 2046. The Trump administration is right to stop forcing the premature closure of plants that ratepayers have already paid for.
