Letter Text (PDF)

Washington (October 3, 2025) — Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, today wrote to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, demanding answers about the Trump administration’s plan announced this week to send hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars—from an unspecified source of appropriations—to the polluting coal industry. This big-dollar giveaway is part of a larger Administration effort to prop up expensive and outdated coal plants, which is already causing household electricity bills to rise.

Senator Markey writes, “Throwing taxpayer money at the coal industry makes no economic sense, especially at a time when the Trump administration’s policies are causing household electricity bills to rise dramatically. Since January 2025, electricity prices have increased 10 percent and are rising twice as fast as the overall rate of inflation, which, despite President Trump’s false claims, also remains high. One way to address these high electricity prices is to put more affordable energy on the grid, by adding wind- and solar-generated power, for example. Instead, the Trump administration is actively blocking clean energy projects and wasting taxpayer money on uneconomical, unhealthy, and outdated coal technology.”

Senator Markey continues, “Indeed, the Trump administration's actions to bail out Big Coal are projected to cost American ratepayers up to $6 billion on their electricity bills annually. Americans are already feeling this pain every month—all to prop up a floundering industry. You invoked emergency powers to keep a coal plant in Michigan online, even though its owners and regulators had already decided to retire it. Keeping just this one coal plant online will cost $1 million per day, paid for by households across the region it serves. By 2029, roughly 27,000 megawatts worth of U.S. coal plants are slated to retire. Your quest to force these failing facilities to stay online will force American ratepayers to shoulder unfathomable costs.”

Senator Markey requests answers to the following questions by October 17, 2025:

1. What annual or supplemental appropriations are you using to provide $625 million of taxpayer money to prop up the coal industry?
2. What specific statutory authority—including the relevant public law and section—was cited by the Department of Energy's General Counsel in approving this reprogramming, transfer, or repurposing of funds? Furthermore, was the General Counsel’s analysis based on the Department's general annual transfer authority, or other law?
3. Why is the Department of Energy forcing ratepayers to subsidize uneconomical coal plants that were set to retire?
4. Has the Department of Energy analyzed the projected increase in costs to ratepayers that will result from its stated campaign to keep uneconomic coal plants operational?
5. Has the Department of Energy worked with the Environmental Protection Agency or the Department of Health and Human Services to assess the health impacts from increased air pollution and exposure to toxic coal ash as a result of this coal bailout?

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