This week the Biden administration reiterated through a top energy official at the State Department that it is firmly committed to keeping its blinders on when it comes to the world’s energy realities. Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt told reporters on Tuesday that “a top priority” is targeting and ending the use of coal, in particular, the “early phase-out of coal power.”

Anyone who has been following the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) reckless power plant regulatory tear won’t be surprised by this statement. But making that statement following a year when global coal use reached a record high, energy inflation continues, and during a week when power grids are being stretched to their limits and the importance of having every possible source of dispatchable electricity available is swelteringly obvious, seems particularly tone deaf, even for this administration. 

It’s also firmly not what the American people want. Polling conducted recently for the National Mining Association found:

• 78 percent of Americans support an all of the above energy strategy that includes coal (just 10 percent do not support and 12 percent don’t know).
  
• 72 percent of Americans are concerned about the speed of the transition’s impacts on reliability (18 percent are not concerned and 11 percent don’t know). This number is up from 52 percent in May 2023, the last time the NMA polled on this question.
  
• 65 percent believe we should pause closures of existing, well-operating power plants until replacement generating capacity is in place and operational (17 percent disagree and 17 percent don’t know). This is up from 56 percent in May 2023, the last time the NMA polled on this question.

The administration seems to be missing the plain fact that, for the energy transition to be successful, the grid can’t collapse in favor of artificial shut-down mandates. Coal has a critical role to play in helping navigate a responsible energy transition that doesn’t sacrifice affordability, reliability or security. Targeting the fuels that are still keeping the lights on in much of the world, with no plan for what happens when the wind stops blowing, the sun stops shining and natural gas prices are high, is a road map for exorbitant energy prices, stalled manufacturing and the potential for blackouts.