Trump Invokes Cold War Powers to Mandate Pentagon Coal Purchases
A National Security Pivot: Utilizing the Defense Production Act and $175 Million in Federal Grants to Secure Baseload Power for AI Growth and Military Readiness
The 1950s are calling, and they are bringing the power grid with them. In a bid to resuscitate an industry he has long championed, President Donald Trump is dusting off Cold War-era authorities to force a marriage between the Department of Defense and the nation’s coal-fired power plants. The President is set to unveil an executive order on Wednesday that directs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to enter into agreements purchasing electricity specifically from coal facilities, effectively turning the US military into a guaranteed customer for the fossil fuel.
This isn’t just a standard procurement tweak; the White House is tapping into the sweeping powers of the 1950 Defense Production Act. Originally designed to mobilize the industrial base for the Korean War, the Act is now being repurposed to classify domestic coal generation as a matter of national security. The logic here is that between the energy-hungry rise of artificial intelligence and the bitter cold of recent winter storms, the grid needs the baseload reliability that coal provides, market forces be damned.

