The Nickel Report

On April 8, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order 14241, which builds on the March 20 Executive Order titled Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production (Executive Order 14241) and complements two other executive orders issued on April 8 focused on strengthening the US electric grid and protecting American energy from state overreach. The coal order provides for immediate action to remove restrictions on coal leasing, mining, and exporting and outlines initiatives to extend coal-power infrastructure and support coal technologies. This order is part of the administration’s holistic strategy to promote coal production in order to support domestic job creation, provide reliable energy supply for resurgent electricity demand from emerging technologies, lower energy costs, capitalize on vast US coal reserves, and facilitate coal exports. The order includes the following initiatives and mandates:

Designation of coal as a “mineral” under Executive Order 14241 and as a “critical mineral”: The order directs the Chair of the National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC) to designate coal as a “mineral” under Executive Order 14241, enabling coal and coal projects to qualify for the benefits under Executive Order 14241, including streamlined permitting and accelerated financing initiatives, as outlined in our previous blog posts on March 21 and March 24. The order also directs the heads of the Energy and Interior departments to determine whether coal used in the production of steel qualifies as a “critical material” to be placed on the Department of Energy Critical Minerals List and the Department of the Interior Critical Minerals List.

Evaluating and enabling coal mining on federal lands: The order directs the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Secretary of Energy to conduct a review of coal resources and reserves contained on federal lands and submit a comprehensive report (1) outlining barriers to mining such coal resources, (2) making policy proposals to address such barriers in order to facilitate the mining of the identified coal resources, and (3) providing an analysis of the impact coal resources could have on electricity costs and grid reliability. The order further directs the Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Agriculture to designate coal leasing activities as the primary land use for such federal lands containing coal resources identified in the report, to expeditiously process royalty rate reduction applications from federal coal lessees, and to acknowledge the end of the Jewell Moratorium. The Jewell Moratorium of 2016 established a moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands. The Moratorium was lifted by a federal court in 2024.

Extending the life of coal-powered infrastructure: In response to growing electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and other high-performance computing activities, the order directs the Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Commerce, and Secretary of Energy to identify regions with coal-powered infrastructure sufficient to support AI data centers, evaluate such infrastructure for growth opportunities, and submit to the Chair of the NEDC a comprehensive report with findings and proposals.

Expansive support for coal: The order includes an expansive approach to strengthen the coal industry, including a comprehensive review of restrictive practices towards coal production, measures to increase coal exports, and support for coal technologies. These initiatives include:

• Removing regulatory and policy barriers to coal production and use: The order mandates a comprehensive review of guidance, regulations, programs, and policies of executive departments or agencies that promote an energy transition away from coal production and coal-fired electricity generation, including guidance, policies, or agreements of the International Development Finance Corporation, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and other funding agencies discouraging investment in coal-related projects. Such agencies are directed to eliminate any such preferences against coal use unless required by law.
• Facilitating coal exports: The Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with other agencies, is directed to promote exports of coal technology and coal, including facilitating international offtake agreements for US coal.
• Streamlining environmental review of coal projects: Agencies are directed to identify to the Council on Environmental Quality any existing or potential categorical pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act that could support the production and export of coal.
• Advancing commercial coal technologies: The Secretary of Energy is directed to take necessary actions to accelerate the development and commercialization of coal technologies, using available funding to support innovations in coal use and byproducts, batteries, power generation, and steelmaking.

Additional guidance regarding these programs and initiatives is expected to be issued within 30-90 days after the order was published on April 8.  Broader implications of the reinvigoration of coal production for the data center, AI and electricity grid, and the complementary executive orders will be discussed in a separate blog post.

Contact Martin Stratte or Joanna Enns with questions about the Executive Order and related opportunities.