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To the editor,
On June 5. Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak posted on her Facebook page that “President Trump announced $425 million in funding to strengthen and expand America’s coal fleet, including $27.4 million for upgrades to the Antelope Valley Station in western North Dakota.”
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Fedorchak is right, but woefully missed the big picture. She is applauding Trump’s proposal when just about everyone else knows it is bad. This announcement marks the latest in a string of costly bailouts for a collapsing industry, and Trump is forcing everyday Americans to pay the price.
In 2024, by contrast, the Biden Administration gave $1.434 billion to struggling, aging electric companies in North Dakota to help them move forward to a clean, reliable future. That’s a serious investment in the health of our state’s economy. Biden’s “Empowering Rural America” program, a multibillion-dollar initiative, meant to modernize utilities’ resources by retiring aging, dirty coal plants and replacing them with cost effective wind and solar. Our electric cooperatives Basin Electric, Minnkota Energy and Great River Energy all applied for and received hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade and strengthen their systems and services to customers across the Great Plains and Upper Midwest. Kudos to them for stepping up and planning for a better future. Communities across North Dakota deserve it.
Fast forward to today when the Trump Administration is giving millions to prop up an outdated coal plant just to help it limp along a few more years. This places an unnecessary strain on our electric grid, our wallets and our lungs by prolonging the burning of fossil fuels when renewables are clearly the better bets. Just last week, we learned that the United States got more power from solar panels than from coal plants in May. The coal industry doesn’t need more handouts; the American people need financial relief and smog-free skies.
It is time for Fedorchak and her congressional colleagues to understand that renewables are cheaper, faster to deploy and cleaner than any new fossil fuel plant and are a necessary resource to replace old, dirty and polluting coal. North Dakotans deserve energy solutions that address affordability, reliability and community health: solar, wind and storage do just that. And they can do it right now. We just need our leaders to take us seriously and act.
Sue Leake
Emerado, North Dakota
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