Christine Ho, christine.ho@sierraclub.org
Houston, TX - At CERAWeek, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in an interview that the U.S. should restart retired coal-fired power plants.
Coal plants are expensive and dangerous. With support from Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, since 2010, 389 coal plants have retired or are scheduled to retire, and the U.S. has not built any new coal plants since 2013. This progress has prevented nearly 62,000 premature deaths and saved Americans $29 billion in hospital bills.
While the U.S. continues to phase out coal-fired power plants, renewable energy projects have rapidly expanded. In 2024, the U.S. broke records by adding nearly 50 GW of solar capacity to the grid—marking the largest capacity increase from any energy source in over 20 years. Last year, renewables generated more energy than coal, making up nearly 25 percent of all energy generation in the country. This growth was accelerated by investments in the Inflation Reduction Act, and the fact that renewable energy projects cost less than 99 percent of coal plants.
In response, Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Director Laurie Williams issued the following statement:
“Doug Burgum is way out of line with the American people. Americans want safe, affordable, reliable energy for their families. Renewable energy has coal beat in terms of health outcomes, environmental impacts, cost, and reliability. It is painfully obvious that the only reason Doug Burgum wants to bolster coal is to line the pockets of fossil fuel executives who are seeing the writing on the wall that renewable energy is the future.
“The retired coal plants that Burgum wants to restart closed because they were expensive, polluting dinosaurs. Restarting them would drive up people’s electricity rates when they can least afford it. The Sierra Club knows that coal burning is an expensive, outdated technology that should be a relic of the past, and we will continue fighting to retire every last coal plant in the country. We will continue advocating for the cleaner, healthier and more affordable future Americans deserve.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.