WEST VIRGINIA (WCHS) — On Thursday, President Donald Trump used a law designed to switch wartime production from consumer goods to weapons to upgrade and extend the life of existing coal-fired power plants in West Virginia and a dozen others.
The federal government is pumping $700 million into coal, some of which will underwrite new coal plants in West Virginia at Mount Storm and elsewhere for the first time since 2013.
“Today, we’re officially invoking the Defense Production Act to save 13 coal plants in West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota and Wisconsin,” Trump said.
Trump said the administration will use authority under a Cold War-era national defense law to support 13 coal plants across the country and help build coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia – the first new U.S. coal plants since 2013.
Coal power production is…
