Executive Order 14261 - Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order 14241

Executive Order 14261: Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order 14241

Executive Order 14261, issued on April 8, 2025, aims to significantly boost the domestic coal industry by removing regulatory barriers, promoting its use, and expanding its role in national energy security, economic prosperity, and emerging technologies. It also amends Executive Order 14241.

Purpose and Policy

• Purpose: The Executive Order (EO) asserts that increasing domestic coal production is crucial for America's economic prosperity, national security, lowering the cost of living, and meeting the rising electrical demand from emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and domestic manufacturing. Coal is highlighted as abundant, cost-effective, and a significant job creator.
• Policy: The United States policy declares coal essential to national and economic security. It establishes a national priority to support the domestic coal industry by removing Federal regulatory barriers, encouraging coal utilization, increasing American coal exports, and ensuring Federal policy does not discriminate against coal production or coal-fired electricity generation.

Strengthening National Energy Security

• Coal as a "Mineral": The Chair of the National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC) is directed to designate coal as a "mineral" under Section 2 of Executive Order 14241 of March 20, 2025 (Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production). This designation entitles coal to all benefits afforded to minerals under that order.
• Amendment to EO 14241: Executive Order 14241 is amended by replacing the reference "4332(d)(1)(B)" with "4532(d)(1)(B)" in Section 6(d) of that order.
• Compliance Impact: Agencies implementing EO 14241 must now include coal in their considerations for mineral production and related benefits.

Assessing and Lifting Barriers to Coal Mining on Federal Lands

• Resource Assessment Report: Within 60 days of April 8, 2025, the Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, and Energy must submit a consolidated report to the President. This report must identify coal resources and reserves on Federal lands, assess impediments to mining, and propose policies to enable their extraction by private or public entities.
• Electricity Impact Analysis: The Secretary of Energy must include an analysis in the report on how the availability of these coal resources could impact electricity costs and grid reliability.
• Prioritizing Coal Leasing: The Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture are directed to prioritize coal leasing and related activities as the primary land use for identified coal-rich public lands. They must expedite leasing, including by utilizing emergency authorities and identifying opportunities for expedited environmental reviews, consistent with applicable law.
• Ending the Jewell Moratorium: The Secretary of the Interior is directed to acknowledge the end of the "Jewell Moratorium" by ordering the publication of a notice in the Federal Register terminating the related Environmental Impact Statement. The Secretary must also process royalty rate reduction applications from Federal coal lessees as expeditiously as permitted by law.
• Compliance Impact: Interior and Agriculture must re-evaluate land use priorities, expedite leasing processes, and formally end the moratorium. The report is due by June 7, 2025.

Supporting American Coal as an Energy Source

• Identification of Anti-Coal Policies: Within 30 days of April 8, 2025, the Administrator of the EPA and the Secretaries of Transportation, Interior, Energy, Labor, and Treasury must identify any guidance, regulations, programs, and policies within their agencies that aim to transition the Nation away from coal production and electricity generation.
• Revision or Rescission of Policies: Within 60 days of April 8, 2025, the heads of all relevant executive departments and agencies must consider revising or rescinding the identified Federal actions, consistent with applicable law.
• Discouraging Investment: Agencies empowered to make loans, loan guarantees, grants, equity investments, or conclude offtake agreements (domestically and abroad) must, to the extent permitted by law, rescind policies or regulations that discourage investment in coal production and coal-fired electricity generation (e.g., the 2021 U.S. Treasury Fossil Fuel Energy Guidance for Multilateral Development Banks).
• Review of Financing Programs: Within 30 days of April 8, 2025, the Secretaries of State, Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, the CEO of the International Development Finance Corporation, the President of the Export-Import Bank, and heads of other agencies with discretionary energy project financing programs must review their charters, regulations, guidance, and policies to ensure they do not discourage financing coal mining and electricity generation projects. Any identified preferences against coal use must be immediately eliminated, except as explicitly provided by statute.
• Compliance Impact: Multiple agencies face deadlines of May 8, 2025, for identifying anti-coal policies and June 7, 2025, for considering their revision or rescission. Agencies involved in financing must also review and potentially amend their policies by May 8, 2025.

Supporting American Coal Exports

• Promoting Exports: The Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Secretaries of State and Energy, the U.S. Trade Representative, and other relevant agencies, must take all necessary actions to promote and identify export opportunities for coal and coal technologies, and facilitate international offtake agreements for U.S. coal.
• Compliance Impact: Commerce and other agencies must actively engage in promoting and facilitating coal exports.

Expanding Use of Categorical Exclusions for Coal Under NEPA

• Identifying Categorical Exclusions: Within 30 days of April 8, 2025, each agency must identify to the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) existing and potential categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
• Purpose: The goal is to increase reliance on and adoption of these categorical exclusions by other agencies to further the production and export of coal.
• Compliance Impact: Agencies must review their NEPA procedures and report to CEQ by May 8, 2025.

Steel Dominance

• Critical Material/Mineral Designation: The Secretary of Energy must determine if coal used in steel production meets the definition of a "critical material" under the Energy Act of 2020 and, if so, place it on the Department of Energy Critical Materials List. Similarly, the Secretary of the Interior must determine if metallurgical coal used in steel production meets the criteria for a "critical mineral" under the Act and, if so, place it on the Department of the Interior Critical Minerals List.
• Compliance Impact: DOE and DOI must conduct these assessments and potentially update their respective critical materials/minerals lists.

Powering Artificial Intelligence Data Centers

• Infrastructure Identification: Within 60 days of April 8, 2025, the Secretaries of the Interior, Commerce, and Energy must identify regions where coal-powered infrastructure is available and suitable for supporting AI data centers.
• Expansion Assessment: They must also assess the market, legal, and technological potential for expanding coal-based infrastructure to meet the electricity needs of AI and high-performance computing operations.
• Report: A consolidated summary report with findings and proposals must be submitted to the Chair of the NEDC, the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and the Special Advisor for AI and Crypto.
• Compliance Impact: Interior, Commerce, and Energy must conduct this assessment and report by June 7, 2025.

Acceleration of Coal Technology

• Technology Development: The Secretary of Energy must take all necessary actions to accelerate the development, deployment, and commercialization of coal technologies. This includes utilizing available funding mechanisms to support technologies that use coal and coal byproducts (e.g., building materials, battery materials, carbon fiber, synthetic graphite, printing materials), and updating coal feedstock for power generation and steelmaking.
• Action Plan: Within 90 days of April 8, 2025, the Secretary of Energy must submit a detailed action plan to the President (through the Chair of the NEDC) outlining funding mechanisms, programs, and policy actions to accelerate coal technology deployment.
• Compliance Impact: DOE must prioritize and fund coal technology initiatives and provide an action plan by July 7, 2025.

General Provisions

• The EO clarifies that it does not impair the authority of executive departments or agencies, or the functions of the Office of Management and Budget. It is to be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations, and does not create any enforceable rights or benefits.