Trump unveils $700M coal industry support plan using Defense Production Act

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a nearly $700 million initiative Thursday at the White House aimed at supporting the U.S. coal industry, including funding for power plant upgrades, new projects and export infrastructure.

Meeting with leaders in the Oval Office, Trump said he will invoke the Defense Production Act, a Cold War-era law that grants presidents broad authority over industries considered vital to national security, to direct federal support to coal projects across the country and to save 13 coal plants in West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, Tennessee, Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota and Wisconsin.

The president announced the plan during a White House event focused on what the administration has called "beautiful clean coal."

"If you look at China, if you look at so many of the successful countries, they're using coal," Trump said. "If you look at some of the really great failures, countries they're using wind, just keeps blowing, blowing, blowing and put you right out of business."

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