Tell DOE: Stop Raiding Climate Funds to Bail Out Coal

The Department of Energy (DOE) wants to use climate-related funding to keep aging coal plants alive—and even bring shuttered plants back online—as fossil-fuel pollution makes deadly heat waves, destructive wildfires, droughts, floods, and other climate disasters worse.

DOE plans to spend $350 million that Congress designated for carbon-capture demonstrations and pilot programs on projects to restart closed coal plants, repair and modernize aging facilities, and extend the operation of plants that might otherwise retire. 

Top Democratic appropriators in Congress say the plan misuses public money and may violate federal spending law. They are demanding that DOE stop moving the funds until it proves that every award complies with the law.

Coal plants are major sources of climate pollution. In 2024, coal generated only about 16% of U.S. electricity, yet it produced nearly half of the electric power sector’s carbon dioxide emissions. Coal plants also release soot, mercury, smog-forming chemicals, and other pollutants that can harm workers and nearby communities.

Keeping old coal plants running longer means more climate pollution, more dangerous heat, fires, floods, and other disasters, more public subsidies, and less money for the clean-energy investments the country actually needs.

DOE says the projects must eventually include a carbon-capture pilot or demonstration. But lawmakers reviewing the awards say much of the money is aimed at coal-plant construction, repairs, upgrades, and restarts. In some cases, the carbon-capture component may amount only to a study or an assessment of whether the technology could be added later.

That is not a serious climate strategy. It is a coal bailout with a carbon-capture label slapped on it.

Carbon capture already has major limitations and must not become an excuse to prolong fossil-fuel dependence. Using funds Congress approved for carbon-capture projects to finance broader coal-plant work would make that problem even worse.

Every dollar spent propping up an aging coal plant is a dollar that cannot go toward renewable energy, battery storage, energy efficiency, or a stronger electric grid.

The Trump administration does not get to rewrite federal spending laws to reward its preferred industries.

Please sign the petition demanding that DOE halt these coal bailouts, disclose any funds already committed, and use public money only for the purposes authorized by Congress.

The petition to the Department of Energy reads: Immediately halt plans to use $350 million in congressionally designated carbon-capture funding to restart, repair, modernize, or extend the operation of coal-fired power plants unless DOE can demonstrate that each expenditure fully complies with the purposes established by Congress. Disclose any funds already obligated and provide a complete public accounting of the selected awards.
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Source:

https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/minority/murray-kaptur-blast-doe-for-illegally-funneling-carbon-capture-funds-to-prop-up-coal-plants-demand-department-halts-plans