“The government should not be picking winners and losers in the marketplace!” That is bedrock conservative, Republican, right-wing, MAGA doctrine and has been for decades. The phrase was used constantly to oppose clean energy initiatives by Democrats such as the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided federal incentives for electric vehicles and solar power. Those incentives made Republicans’ blood boil as they huffed and puffed about government overreach and the many sins of progressive government that put people first instead of corporations. How then to interpret the latest move from this failed administration that will shovel $700 million taxpayer dollars to boost coal-powered thermal generation of electricity in the US? According to Latitude Media, $185 million will come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that Congress passed in 2021 that appropriated money for carbon capture and storage projects. That funding will help build two new large coal power plants — the first new coal facilities in the US since 2013. It will also pay to restart a 200 MW coal-powered generating plant in Maryland that was shuttered by AES in 2023. At the time, the Independent Market Monitor for PJM said that facility was “not just uneconomic, but extraordinarily uneconomic.” Relying On The Defense Production Act In its mania to reward campaign contributors for their donations, the administration is relying on the Defense Production Act of 1950, which grants the president the authority to compel private industry to prioritize and expand the production of goods and services to meet national defense, emergency preparedness, and critical infrastructure needs. And what is the great national emergency that justifies invoking a 76 year old law? Artificial intelligence, the beast that is sucking up every available electron in America to … well, what is it that AI does that justifies such emergency measures? If you know, please share that information with the rest of us in your comments. Inquiring minds want to know. A year ago, Congress passed the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, which included $1 billion to pay for any boondoggles connected to national security the White House could dream up. So, now, US taxpayers will pay through the nose to support 13 existing coal generating stations as well as the development of a coal export terminal in Oakland, California. Condemnation of the new spending plan was swift. “It is disgusting and reprehensible that the president of the United States is giving away our taxpayer dollars to deadly and expensive coal plants that will make Americans sicker and drive up electricity prices even more,” said Patrick Drupp, climate policy director of the Sierra Club. “This handout betrays everything [the so-called president] promised and only serves his big coal buddies who stroke his ego and hand him shiny trophies.” The Cost/Benefit Ratio Coal power is the most expensive way to generate electricity known to science. Putting aside its massive carbon emissions, its toxic waste lagoons that leach carcinogens into the groundwater, and its tendency to spew fine particulates that make people sick into the air, it costs more than any other source. Not only that, it takes years to build a coal powered generating station and bring it online. By contrast, renewables — especially solar — can be brought online more quickly than any other technology. So why is the administration picking losers who will cost Americans more money? Because it can, that’s why, and because the coal industry bribed made a lot of campaign contributions to Repugnicans in the last campaign. When the so-called president of the United States was running for office in 2024, he promised — loudly — to bring down energy prices on Day One! Exactly the opposite has happened. According to Bloomberg, the wholesale price of electricity at PJM — the largest grid operator in the country — is 76 percent higher than it was a year ago at $136.53 per MWh. Capacity costs, which ensure the grid has enough supply during periods of highest demand, rose by almost 400 percent. Smash The Grid! That has led this administration to suggest that PJM should be broken up into smaller pieces. How exactly that would lower the cost consumers pay for electricity is not clear, but in the world of politics, doing something is required, even if that something makes matters worse. FERC chair Laura Swett said recently the inability of PJM to get new sources of power approved and connected to the grid places America’s artificial intelligence leadership at risk. “PJM is the tip of the spear, the laboratory of national and economic security on which our country may rise or fall,” Swett said. “Now we face historically unprecedented demand with historically potentially unprecedented, catastrophic failure.” Founded nearly a century ago, PJM manages the grid that supplies electricity to 67 million people — almost one-fifth of the US population. Its sprawling territory also includes some of the country’s largest concentrations of new computing centers, particularly a swath of northern Virginia now known as Data Center Alley. After decades of little growth, power demand is surging and PJM has been swamped by applications to connect to its grid. Pennsylvania has threatened to withdraw from the grid managed by PJM, although what that would accomplish is not exactly clear. Maryland governor Wes Moore, who some think may have higher political ambitions, said at the PJM annual meeting in May, “There’s no clear plan by PJM to address both affordability and reliability. Even if we didn’t foresee the scale, data centers are not new, and we knew a while ago that we would see a lot more. PJM failed to get ahead of it.” While that is true, there are plenty of people and groups who also failed to see the explosion of demand for electricity sparked (no pun intended) by the geometric increase in data centers to serve the AI gods. YOU Will Pay For This While the government is railing about PJM making the cost of electricity too high, it is going to spend $700 million of your money to make them even higher. That’s what happens when ideologues run things instead of competent people with proven experience. Swett, according to Wikipedia, was appointed to FERC just last year and made the chair of the group almost immediately thereafter. Prior to her appointment, she was a lawyer employed by Vinson & Elkins, a Houston based law firm that specializes in representing fossil fuel interests. In other words, she is supremely unqualified for the position and is there solely to dutifully carry out the wishes of the president. America is on the cusp of becoming a brave new country in which only the votes of the wealthy count and the people are free to amuse themselves to death, just so long as they stay silent and obey. Building new coal generating stations is the wrong thing at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. But if it brings in more campaign donations, that is the only justification needed to move forward with this disastrous plan. Yet it is not working. The Guardian reported this week that so-called red states are leading the nation when it comes to adding new renewable energy sources to their grids. It says that in terms of utility scale renewables, states that voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election made up eight of the top 10 in the first quarter of 2026. Data released by the Energy Information Administration shows that Indiana tops the list of states with the most clean energy capacity growth this year, followed by Kentucky and Utah. Other red states joining the renewable energy party include Missouri, Arkansas, Ohio, Mississippi, Michigan, Arizona, Louisiana and Wyoming. And why are renewables doing so well in those states? That’s easy. They cost less and come on line faster than other forms of generation — especially coal, which is the most expensive of all. It would be wonderful if the government would stop picking losers to receive taxpayer money. Is that too much to hope for?