WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a series of executive orders aimed at boosting the struggling coal industry, a reliable but polluting energy source that’s long been in decline.

Under the orders, Trump uses his emergency authority to allow some older coal-fired power plants set for retirement to keep producing electricity to meet rising U.S. power demand amid growth in data centers, artificial intelligence and electric cars.

Trump, a Republican, has long promised to boost what he calls “beautiful” coal to fire power plants and for other uses, but the industry has been in decline for decades.

The orders direct federal agencies to identify coal resources on federal lands, lift barriers to coal mining and prioritize coal leasing on U.S. lands. They also direct Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to “acknowledge the end” of an Obama-era moratorium that paused coal leasing on federal lands and require federal agencies to rescind policies transitioning the nation away from coal production.

The orders also seek to promote coal and coal technology exports and to accelerate development of coal technologies.

Trump, who has pushed for U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market, has long suggested that coal can help meet surging electricity demand from manufacturing and the massive data centers needed for artificial intelligence.

“I call it beautiful, clean coal. I told my people, never use the word coal unless you put beautiful clean before it,” Trump said Tuesday at a White House ceremony.

“Pound for pound, coal is the single most reliable, durable, secure and powerful form of energy,” Trump added. “It’s cheap, incredibly efficient, high density, and it’s almost indestructible. You could drop a bomb on it and it’s going to be there for you to use the next day.”

Still, energy experts say any bump for coal under Trump is likely to be temporary because natural gas is cheaper and there’s a durable market for renewable energy such as wind and solar power no matter who holds the White House.

Trump’s actions seek to reverse a decades-long decline in U.S. coal production. His administration has targeted regulations under former President Joe Biden’s administration that could hasten closures of heavily polluting coal power plants and the mines that supply them.

Coal once provided more than half of U.S. electricity production, but its share dropped to about 16% in 2023, down from about 45% as recently as 2010. Natural gas provides about 43% of U.S. electricity, with the remainder from nuclear energy and renewables such as wind, solar and hydropower.

The front line in what Republicans call the “war on coal” is in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana, a sparsely populated section of the Great Plains with the nation’s largest coal mines. It’s also home to a massive power plant in Colstrip, Montana, that emits more toxic air pollutants such as lead and arsenic than any other U.S. facility of its kind, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.