The Lone Star State’s population has exploded over the last decade with no signs of slowing down, adding 612,000 new Texans just last year. While this growth has been great for our economy (world’s 8th largest), it has stressed the limits of the state’s infrastructure from roads to water and electricity.
Earlier this month, it was announced Texas’ peak power demand may increase by 50,000 MW – or 60% – by 2030, according to ERCOT. As Tim Allen once said, “we’re gonna need more power!” And Texas is certainly blessed to be the nation’s largest producer of natural gas, with it fueling about 40% of the ERCOT grid. As a regulator of Texas oil and gas, I’m all in for more natural gas production, but there’s another source of reliable energy that we could utilize to produce more electricity—Texas coal.
American coal is making a comeback after more than a decade of harmful federal policies that have been driving it to extinction. On April 8th, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to revitalize the use of coal as a reliable energy source. The order signals an end to the Obama/Biden-era coal moratorium and directs federal agencies to encourage coal powered development.
For more than a century, coal has been a reliable energy source making our modern way of life possible. It wasn’t until radical environmentalists created the Net Zero fantasy that the United States and the rest of the developed world abandoned coal production and coal-fired electric generation. As a result, many coal plants – like the one in Hallsville, Texas – have been run out of business by their own government after decades by ‘woke’ energy policies and replaced with taxpayer-subsidized wind and solar powered projects — which are costly and unreliable.
Over the last twenty years, Texas has become the wind and solar capital of the nation, while coal use has diminished. Wind and solar have grown to about 37% of power on the ERCOT Grid, while coal power has decreased 21% over the decade. More than $140 billion in private capital has poured into wind, solar, and batteries in Texas, fueled by tens of billions in taxpayer dollars and a rigged price market. And what has it gotten us? Wind and solar have failed the grid time and time again and completely abandoned Texas when power was needed the most during Winter Storm Uri. They have also contributed to electricity prices rising 28% from2020 to 2024.
Making coal power great again is one of the best ways to meet that increased demand, lower costs, and keep the lights on. The Lone Star State is home to about 4% of the nation’s total recoverable coal reserves and is the 2nd largest lignite coal producer in the country. America has at least 422 years of coal reserves, and we should use every bit of it to provide cheap, reliable energy to consumers.
President Trump is fulfilling his promise to drive down energy prices and make America energy dominant again by revitalizing American coal production. Texas should capitalize on this coal momentum and support President Trump’s mission to make our nation energy independent.