Trump Coal Grants Fund Plants With Repeated Violations
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Inside Climate News found at least 3 of the 12 plants receiving DOE coal-extending grants have been repeatedly cited for Clean Air Act or Clean Water Act violations: Cumberland (TN), Grand River (OK), and Roxboro (NC).
- Cumberland Fossil Plant was previously slated to close in 2026 and 2028, but after Trump replaced four TVA board members, TVA reversed its retirement plan in February; the plant now receives $46 million in federal funding despite a 2011 multibillion-dollar pollution settlement and new violation citations in 2017 and 2023.
- Grand River Energy Center in Oklahoma will receive $28.5 million toward a $76.5 million project; the state proposed an $8,100 fine in April for failing to test for particulate matter and sent five air-pollution violation notices between 2017 and 2021.
- Roxboro Steam Electric Plant in North Carolina will receive $28.4 million toward a $72.7 million project; state regulators notified Duke Energy of violations six times in the past decade, mostly for reporting failures or exceeding wastewater pollution limits.
- A DOE spokesperson defended the grants as intended to 'keep reliable generation online' and 'reverse the American war on coal,' declining to address the specific violation histories at the three plants.
- Environmental Integrity Project's Courtney Bernhardt said the administration 'seems to disregard the compliance status' of funded plants, while local organizer Angie Mummaw called the Cumberland grant 'a slap in the face.'
Why it matters: Federal money is propping up the very facilities regulators have repeatedly cited for polluting air and water — including Cumberland, where one study estimates its fine-particle emissions contributed to 1,000 deaths in states as far away as New York and Massachusetts from 1999 to 2020. Communities near these aging plants now face extended exposure, while the grants reward operators with documented noncompliance alongside broader EPA enforcement rollbacks.
