29 Sep 2025

Trump administration opens more land for coal mining, offers $625M to boost coal-fired power plants

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By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Monday it will open 13 million acres of federal lands for coal mining and provide $625 million to recommission or modernize coal-fired power plants as President Donald Trump continues his efforts to reverse the year-long decline in the U.S. coal industry.

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Actions by the Energy and Interior departments and the Environmental Protection Agency follow executive orders Trump issued in April to revive coal, a reliable but polluting energy source that’s long been shrinking amid environmental regulations and competition from cheaper natural gas.

Environmental groups denounced announcement, which come as the Trump administration has clamped down on renewable energy, including freezing permits for offshore wind projects, ending clean energy tax credits and blocking wind and solar projects on federal lands.

Under Trump’s orders, the Energy Department has required fossil-fueled power plants in Michigan and Pennsylvania to keep operating past their retirement dates to meet rising U.S. power demand amid growth in data centers, artificial intelligence and electric cars. The latest announcement would allow those efforts to expand as a precaution against possible electricity shortfalls.

Trump also has directed federal agencies to identify coal resources on federal lands, lift barriers to coal mining and prioritize coal leasing on U.S. lands. A sweeping tax bill approved by Republicans and signed by Trump reduces royalty rates for coal mining from 12.5% to 7%, a significant decrease that officials said will help ensure U.S. coal producers can compete in global markets.

FILE – In this April 4, 2013, file photo, a mining dumper truck hauls coal at Cloud Peak Energy’s Spring Creek strip mine near Decker, Mont. AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin arrives for a ceremony in the Pentagon courtyard to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE – A home sits near the Gen. James Gavin Power Plant, a coal-fired power plant, April 14, 2025, in Point Pleasant, W.Va. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File)

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FILE – In this April 4, 2013, file photo, a mining dumper truck hauls coal at Cloud Peak Energy’s Spring Creek strip mine near Decker, Mont. AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)

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‘Mine baby, mine’

The new law also mandates increased availability for coal mining on federal lands and streamlines federal reviews of coal leases.

“Everybody likes to say, ‘drill baby, drill.’ I know that President Trump has another initiative for us, which is ‘mine baby, mine,’” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said at a news conference Monday at Interior headquarters. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Energy Undersecretary Wells Griffith also spoke at the event. All three agencies signed orders boosting coal.

“By reducing the royalty rate for coal, increasing coal acres available for leasing and unlocking critical minerals from mine waste, we are strengthening our economy, protecting national security and ensuring that communities from Montana to Alabama benefit from good-paying jobs,” Burgum said.

Zeldin called coal a reliable energy source that has supported American communities and economic growth for generations.

“Americans are suffering because the past administration attempted to apply heavy-handed regulations to coal and other forms of energy it deemed unfavorable,” he said.

Trump has clamped down on renewable energy

Environmental groups said Trump was wasting federal tax dollars by handing them to owners of the oldest, most expensive and dirtiest source of electricity.

“Subsidizing coal means propping up dirty, uncompetitive plants from last century – and saddling families with their high costs and pollution, said Ted Kelly, clean energy director for the Environmental Defense Fund. “We need modern, affordable clean energy solutions to power a modern economy, but the Trump administration wants to drag us back to a 1950s electric grid.”

Solar, wind and battery storage are the cheapest and fastest ways to bring new power to the grid, Kelly and other advocates said. “It makes no sense to cut off your best, most affordable options while doubling down on the most expensive ones,” Kelly said.

The EPA said Monday it will open a 60-day public comment period on potential changes to a regional haze rule that has helped reduce pollution-fueled haze hanging over national parks, wilderness areas and tribal reservations. Zeldin announced in March that the haze rule would be among dozens of landmark environmental regulations that he plans to roll back or eliminate, including a 2009 finding that climate change harms human health and the environment.

Coal production has dropped steeply

Burgum, who also chairs Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council, said the actions announced Monday, along with the tax law and previous presidential and secretarial orders, will ensure “abundant, affordable energy while reducing reliance on foreign sources of coal and minerals.”

The Republican president 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.

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Coal once provided more than half of U.S. electricity production, but its share dropped to about 15% in 2024, 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.

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.

Associated Press writer Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin contributed to this story.

29 Sep 2025

Youth-led unrest in Madagascar has left at least 22 people dead, UN says

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ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AP) — Violence surrounding youth-led anti-government protests in the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar over the past several days has killed at least 22 people, the United Nations’ human rights office said Monday.

The U.N. agency blamed a “violent response” by security forces for some of the deaths in the unrest that started Thursday over water and power cuts.

Demonstrators hold up placards reading “water and electricity are basic human rights,” “Malagasy people, wake up,” “Let’s not remain in the dark with our yellow cans” in Antananarivo, Madagascar, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Sarah Tetaud)
Security forces and military officers block access to the square for protesters in Antananarivo, Madagascar, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Sarah Tetaud)

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Demonstrators hold up placards reading “water and electricity are basic human rights,” “Malagasy people, wake up,” “Let’s not remain in the dark with our yellow cans” in Antananarivo, Madagascar, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Sarah Tetaud)

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More than 100 people have been injured in the protests that have mirrored the Gen Z-led anti-government demonstrations seen recently in Nepal and Kenya.

Protesters and bystanders were killed by security forces in Madagascar, but some of the deaths also came in violence and looting by gangs not associated with the protesters, the U.N. rights office said in a statement.

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29 Sep 2025

Federal indictment charges 3 activists with alleged ‘doxing’ of ICE agent in Los Angeles

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three activists opposed to President Donald Trump’s immigration raids in Los Angeles have been indicted on charges of illegally “ doxing ” a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, federal prosecutors said.

Investigators said the women followed the agent home, livestreamed their pursuit and then posted the agent’s address online, according to a statement Friday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Once they arrived at the agent’s home, prosecutors allege the women shouted “ICE lives on your street and you should know,” according to the indictment.

The defendants are each charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of publicly disclosing the personal information of a federal agent, the statement said.

Prosecutors said a 25-year-old woman from Panorama City, California, is free on $5,000 bond. A 38-year-old resident of Aurora, Colorado, who is also charged in a separate case with assault on a federal officer, is in custody without bond.

And authorities are searching for the third defendant, a 37-year-old woman from Riverside, California.

“Our brave federal agents put their lives on the line every day to keep our nation safe,” Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement. “The conduct of these defendants are deeply offensive to law enforcement officers and their families. If you threaten, dox, or harm in any manner one of our agents or employees, you will face prosecution and prison time.”

Doxing is a typically malicious practice that involves gathering private or identifying information and releasing it online without the person’s permission, usually in an attempt to harass, threaten, shame or exact revenge.

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Attorneys for the women could not immediately be reached on Monday. An email was sent to the Federal Public Defender’s Office asking if its attorneys are representing the defendants.

According to the indictment, the three women last month followed an ICE agent from the federal building in downtown Los Angeles to the agent’s residence in Baldwin Park east of LA. They livestreamed the entire event, court documents say.

In July, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem threatened to prosecute people for publishing federal agents’ personal information in response to fliers in Portland, Oregon, that called for people to collect intel on ICE.

Critics of the Trump administration’s raids have expressed outrage over federal agents wearing masks and refusing to identify themselves in public while arresting immigrants in California.

Last week, California became the first state to ban most law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from covering their faces while conducting official business.

29 Sep 2025

Party Discipline

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In response to last spring’s student protests against Israel’s war on Gaza that roiled college campuses across the country, including in Texas, the state’s Republican Legislature passed a law this spring placing certain conditions on “expressive activities” on campus. University governing boards were given more power to restrict when and how protests could occur, including a ban on amplified speech during class hours and demonstrations overnight. 

This was a notable about-face from the purported free-speech protections that Texas Republicans had enshrined into law just a few years earlier, in 2019, to curtail perceived campus crackdowns on conservative expression as colleges canceled events with controversial speakers like “alt-right” white nationalist Richard Spencer. 

So swings the political pendulum of First Amendment rights in the Lone Star State—and nationwide—as this foundational protection is treated as a prop to be bear-hugged in one moment and conveniently tossed aside when an opportunistic moment demands. 

After the September assassination of right-wing influencer and activist Charlie Kirk during a college campus event in Utah, the Trump administration and the MAGA movement have responded with a crackdown on free speech and expression, ranging from policing the masses for uncouth responses to Kirk’s killing to getting a critical late-night TV show host temporarily taken off the air. 

Perhaps nowhere has this been on more clear display than in Texas, and, more specifically, in the governor’s mansion. In the wake of Kirk’s death, Governor Greg Abbott publicly called for the expulsion of at least two students on state university campuses who were filmed mocking or otherwise making light of the assassination. In one case, he invoked “FAFO,” a very-online acronym he’s belatedly become fond of (short for “Fuck around and find out”), while posting the image of a Texas Tech student, a young Black woman, getting taken away in handcuffs after taunting Kirk supporters with an improvised song. “This is what happened to the person who was mocking Charlie Kirk’s assassination at Texas Tech,” Abbott wrote. “FAFO.” 

The governor expressed no concern as to whether the 18-year-old had committed any crime or had simply been arrested for her speech.

Abbott and his agency bureaucrats also set up a hotline to report instances of public school teachers in Texas posting anything deemed inappropriate about Kirk’s killing, pledging to revoke the state teaching certificates of anyone deemed guilty of such speech crimes.

While many conservatives in Texas have willingly joined this crackdown, some have shown some semblance of a spine. In response to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi pledging in the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s killing to prosecute “hate speech,” Senator Ted Cruz kindly reminded his podcast audience that this would be unconstitutional. The nation’s founding document “absolutely protects hate speech,” he said. “It protects vile speech. It protects horrible speech. What does that mean? It means you cannot be prosecuted for speech, even if it is evil and bigoted and wrong.” 

He also said that the Trump-appointed FCC chief had acted like a “mafioso” by threatening ABC execs over late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel’s (conveniently misinterpreted) commentary on Kirk’s death. Some other Texas Republicans publicly supported Cruz’s sentiment, including departing state Representative and ex-Speaker Dade Phelan, who chimed in: “Slippery slope indeed.” 

Meanwhile, the state’s top Republican leaders rushed to assemble what appears to be purely a show committee. Two days after Kirk’s murder, the Texas House speaker and lieutenant governor announced a select committee on Civil Discourse & Freedom of Speech in Higher Education, an Orwellian title for a body to ostensibly oversee the implementation of two recently enacted laws policing speech, governance, and curriculum on campus. 

This has all come alongside a rash of faculty firings in Texas sparked by the right’s efforts to purge universities of suspected leftist radicalism. A history professor at Texas State University was summarily tossed out of his tenured position for critical comments he made at a socialism conference about the violent American empire, which were surreptitiously recorded by a right-wing blogger. That professor, Thomas Alter, has since filed a lawsuit against the university for violating his First Amendment rights.

A lecturer at Texas A&M was also fired for apparently discussing a book that touched on gender identity in her children’s literature class. Texas A&M President Mark Welsh, a former four-star Air Force general, was caught on video initially resisting calls to fire the professor, though he ultimately did axe her in the face of cacophonous political pressure. But his initial hesitancy had his critics—including right-wing state Representative Brian Harrison and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick—saying he was insufficiently committed to carrying out the anti-left purges. 

“His ambivalence on the issue and his dismissal of the student’s concerns by immediately taking the side of the professor is unacceptable,” Patrick posted on social media. Welsh then resigned.

A&M, the more conservative sibling campus to UT-Austin, has been under growing scrutiny recently from right-wing attack dogs like Harrison, who’ve pounced on any sign of supposed DEI initiatives, gender and race coursework, and the like. Welsh himself was named university president to replace M. Katherine Banks, who resigned in the summer of 2023 amid a firestorm sparked by the university hiring longtime UT journalism professor Kathleen McElroy to head up A&M’s journalism program. That news whipped right-wingers into what McElroy, who is Black, described as a “DEI hysteria,” and the university board of regents rescinded her offer. (McElroy, who remains a UT professor, has since become a board member of the Texas Observer’s parent nonprofit.) 

While Welsh left without putting up much of a fight, his ouster has some similarities to perhaps the most infamous political breach of academic freedom in Texas history. In 1944, UT President Homer Rainey was summarily fired by the regents for his full-throated opposition to their firing of four economics professors with pro-labor New Deal politics and an English professor who’d assigned a controversial novel (which they also then banned). 

His ouster became a national story and prompted broad resistance on campus—including thousands of students who went on strike. The governor at the time, Coke Stevenson, did replace many of the sitting UT regents, but Rainey was never rehired. 

Nowadays, the independence of university leadership—to say nothing of faculty—has been greatly deteriorated by political dictates and targeted pressure campaigns. 

Abbott’s appointed regents are all big campaign donors who sit neatly in his back pocket. And the chancellorships of the big three university systems are now all about to be controlled by ex-Republican politicians: at UT, former state Representative John Zerwas; at A&M, recently departed Comptroller Glenn Hegar; and likely soon at Texas Tech, hardline conservative state Senator Brandon Creighton. 

All this portends a straitjacketed Texas campus culture, one fit for a Soviet Union in which Gorbachev had been succeeded by Pat Buchanan. In recent weeks, cancel crusades have been launched against individuals who merely quoted some of the late Kirk’s more repugnant views on civil rights or, sharpening the point, gun violence. To risk quoting Kirk himself here—espousing the rare view of his that was fit for a decent society: “There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech,” he once opined. “And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment.”

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