Trump forges bond between military and coal industry with executive order

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) – President Donald Trump is directing the Pentagon to ink energy contracts with the coal industry.
The President signed an executive order dictating the contracts during a White House event the administration dubbed the “Champion of Coal.”
Trump said he wants to reverse course from how his predecessor Joe Biden treated coal plants.
“They shut em down,” Trump said. Literally it seemed like one a week, one a day, they were shutting them down left and right as fast as you could.”
The president said he plans to continue approving permits for new coal mines.
He also announced Wednesday that he is directing the Department of Energy to issue coal funding to West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina and Kentucky.
“These pro-American energy policies are bringing energy prices way down,” The president said. “You see what’s happening right now even with gasoline.”
Trump said his executive order will save the military money.
“We’re going to be buying a lot of coal through the military now and it’s going to be less expensive and actually more effective than what we have been using for many, many years.”
Critics of coal say it’s a finite resource that harms the environment, but Trump says those concerns are outdated.
“Incredible how clean they’re able to keep it now with all of the new techniques, they’re able to keep it. They’re able to do things environmentally that are amazing.”