USGS Designation Ignores Law, Groups Say Coal for Steel is Not Critical

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, the US Geological Survey (USGS) added metallurgical coal to a list of "critical minerals," which could allow the Trump administration to steamroll bedrock environmental laws to boost coke production and widen the devastation of coal mining.

The value of metallurgical, or met, coal has been dropping due to the market moving towards cleaner, more productive methods of making steel. However, the Trump administration has committed to propping up the dying industry.

Sierra Club joined more than a dozen environmental and advocacy groups in signing a comment to USGS detailing why met coal does not meet any of the criteria to qualify as a critical mineral under the Energy Act and is further prohibited from being designated as a critical mineral because of its use as a fuel.

The comment concludes:

"Prioritizing and potentially subsidizing metallurgical coal, mostly for export, directly undermines American manufacturing, competitiveness and innovation."

Earlier this year, at Trump's urging, Congress designated metallurgical coal as a "critical" mineral in its "Big, Ugly Bill" and created new tax credits, a handout to coal executives that diverts taxpayer dollars from efforts to build a modern, competitive industry. That legislation helped to kick-start this process at the USGS, as well as a separate undertaking at the Department of Energy , which will enrich foreign steelmakers using met coal and harm US steelmakers.

In reaction, environmental and clean steel advocacy groups issued the following statements:

Sierra Club Industrial Campaign Lead Harry Manin: "Metallurgical coal is not critical. The vast majority is exported to foreign steelmakers undercutting the United States. This new designation is an attempt by the Trump administration to unfairly and unwisely subsidize an outdated, dirty method of making steel. It is a handout to coal barons who are losing market share to new methods of making steel that use cleaner, more modern and productive technologies. This is a waste of taxpayer money, undermines American innovation and manufacturing, and will devastate pristine outdoor places and public health."

West Virginia Highlands Conservancy Program Director Olivia Miller: "For centuries, the people of Appalachia have paid the price for coal with their health, their land, and the chance to build a different kind of future. Falsely designating metallurgical coal as a critical mineral only guarantees more of the same pain. Our communities deserve better than another handout to an industry that has taken so much. It's time to look forward to clean energy, good jobs, and a future that doesn't come at the expense of our mountains or our people."

Industrious Labs' Partner Evan Gillespie: "This designation gives coal executives the green light to bulldoze through environmental protections and ramp up production to meet foreign demand for coal-based steel. While global competitors race toward cleaner steelmaking technologies, the U.S. is betting on the past and propping up an industry the world is moving beyond."

Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance Staff Attorney Andrew Young: "Appalachia has borne the scars of mountaintop removal for generations, and this designation is the latest excuse to plunder what's left. The Trump administration is twisting the law to subsidize pollution, undermine clean, competitive steel innovation, and keep the region chained to an industry that has already stolen too much from its people and its land. No one in Appalachian coal producing states should have to trade clean water and healthy mountains for corporate handouts to dying coal barons."

Appalachian Voices Government Affairs Specialist Kevin Zedack: "At a time when Appalachians are feeling the real time impacts of the federal government shutdown by losing access to their SNAP benefits and energy assistance programs that help them keep their heat on this winter as utility rates skyrocket, the Trump administration has prioritized expediting metallurgical coal mining that will largely be shipped overseas for foreign steel manufacturing. Further, exported coal does not contribute to the black lung trust fund that pays for benefits to the miners doing the work. So again we see business interests being prioritized over our communities' health and wellbeing."

Group Against Smog & Pollution Executive Director Patrick Campbell: "Invoking the language of 'critical' national security need, the administration is creating a loophole for polluters, paving the way for expedited permitting, reduced environmental review, and expanded federal support for projects that will increase the devastating impact of coal mining. It's outrageous that the Trump administration continues to give a pass to industry with no thought about the myriad ways that metallurgical coal and its production impact actual humans living next to industrial facilities. Moves like this just undermine front-line residents in places like southwestern Pennsylvania's Mon Valley, who have long been overburdened by industrial pollution."

Kentucky Resources Council Executive Director Ashley Wilmes: "For decades, coal companies have dominated policy choices and shaped entire regions around extraction - leaving communities with polluted water, degraded land, and few real economic pathways. Instead of ensuring reclamation and a just transition to a clean energy economy, this Administration is again propping up the coal industry and putting corporate interests ahead of the health of our people and environment."

Earthjustice Action Associate Legislative Representative Cameron Walkup: "Even in the middle of the longest government shutdown in history, the Trump Administration can't stop giving favors to polluting industries. By deeming controversial minerals like metallurgical coal, uranium, copper, and others as 'critical minerals,' USGS is ignoring basic economics, violating the law, and opening the door for federal agencies to quickly rubber-stamp large polluting projects with insufficient guardrails in place to protect communities, ecosystems, and Indigenous sacred sites."

Center for Biological Diversity Attorney Emma Yip: "The Trump administration's bid to designate dirty coal as a critical mineral is completely out of touch with reality and it's flat-out illegal. This boneheaded move is a loser economically, environmentally and legally. The law explicitly prohibits fuel minerals from being labeled as critical, so this is just another suck up to the fossil fuel industry. After multiple coal lease sales flopped last month, you'd think Trump would stop clinging to a Gilded Age past and hitching our country's fate to a dying industry."

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