In a payoff to his Coal Baron contributors, Donald Trump has forced obsolete coal plants in several states to stay open, and middle class ratepayers to continue to subsidize the Oligarchs and 1 percent.
But markets are powerful, and renewables are too compelling to stop.
In 2025, the share of renewables in U.S. electricity generation has surpassed 25 percent.
Over the course of the past 20 years, their share has continuously risen from just 8.6 percent in 2007.
At the same time, as Statista’s Kathraina Buchholz details in the infographic below, coal in electricity generation fell from a share of 49 percent to just 16.4 percent last year.
While Trump administration’s policies regarding renewable energy and greenhouse gases have yet to show their full effect, experts believe that the sector’s strong growth as well as efficiency and cost improvements will cause it to expand further – albeit slower – despite some government funding losses and the end of emission limits.
In 2022, more electricity was generated from renewable sources in the U.S. for the first time over the course of one year than from coal.
That year, renewable energy sources created more than 900 terawatt-hours of electric power in the country compared to a little over 800 that came from coal.
On a global scale, this change happened last year as renewables outweighed coal electricity generation in the second half of 2025.
Up until 2007, coal accounted for more than 2,000 terawatt hours of electricity in the U.S. before the figure started to declined as regulations around fossil fuels – limits on carbon-intensity and the emissions of toxic elements like mercury – tightened. Electricity generation from natural gas gained pace as a result since it produces somewhat less CO2. To reach the emission goals associated with the net zero age, however, the U.S. would have to continue growing carbon-neutral electricity sources like wind and solar, which have been on a steady upwards climb in the new millennium and are now the second biggest source of electric power in the country.
US Energy Information Administration:
Coal. In 2026, 6.4 GW of coal-fired capacity is scheduled to retire, which accounts for almost 4% of the U.S. coal fleet that was in operation as of the end of 2025. Coal retirements were expected to increase last year after they slowed down in 2024. However, only 2.6 GW out of an anticipated 8.0 GW of coal capacity were retired, as the DOE issued emergency orders that temporarily postponed the retirement of large coal plants. Any renewed or new emergency orders could affect retirements planned for this year as well.
Retirements of several coal-fired plants scheduled for last year were postponed to 2026:
- J.H. Campbell in Michigan*, 1,331 megawatts (MW)
- South Oak Creek Units 7 and 8 in Wisconsin, 616 MW
- R.M. Schahfer Units 17 and 18 in Indiana, 722 MW
- Craig Station Unit 1 in Colorado, 427 MW
- Comanche Unit 2 in Colorado, 335 MW
- F.B. Culley Unit 2 in Indiana, 90 MW
Today, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is announcing her intent to file a request for rehearing with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), challenging the Department’s latest arbitrary and illegal order forcing the continued operation of Consumers Energy’s J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant in West Olive, Michigan, under the pretense of a fabricated energy emergency. DOE’s fourth order under Federal Power Act Section 202(c) forces Consumers Energy to run the J.H. Campbell coal plant until May 18, 2026, nearly a year beyond its previously approved retirement date of May 31, 2025. The retirement was approved by the Michigan Public Service Commission after extensive planning and analysis by state regulators and the broader inter-state power grid. This has included the procurement of replacement power resources, and the planning for future resources, to more than account for the removal of the J.H Campbell Plant.
The retirement of the Campbell Plant and its replacement with more cost-effective resources were elements of a carefully considered plan that was expected to save Michigan ratepayers nearly $600 million. Instead, Consumers Energy has reported at least $135 million in costs associated with the Campbell plant past its scheduled retirement date, not including ongoing costs of running the plant from December 31, 2025, to the present.
If FOSSIL gas replaced some coal because of mercury reductions it can’t because FOSSIL gas, (aka methane + impurities) produces less CO2. The sentence was unclear. Plus, although fossil gas produces less CO2, the system leaks so much methane, FOSSIL gas is as bad as coal for climate.