Trump is using his wartime power to boost a dirty corner of the fossil fuel industry, and online commentators are scoffing at the deal.
More than a dozen coal plants are expected to benefit from a $700 million plan with the help of the Defense Production Act, according to a post by CBS senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs.
“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,” Patrick Drupp, climate policy director of the Sierra Club," told The Guardian.
"Why?" wrote journalist Molly Jong-Fast.
"So now we are paying $700m to subsidize coal plants while paying companies $2 billion to not build offshore wind," wrote climate scientist Zeke Hausfather. "So much for the free market."
"The art of the deal," journalist Sam Stein joked. "Pay billions of dollars to take offshore wind farms offline then pay hundreds of millions more to prop up coal plants."
"Just another step toward a managed economy and away from a free economy," Marc Short, the chairman of the conservative Advancing American Freedom, grumbled.
"Socialism for Big Coal," agreed progressive journalist Lauren Windsor.
"We've gone from subsidizing Elon's cars and green energy to subsidizing coal plants in an instant," the account for investingLive, which posts market news, wrote.
Conservative journalist Brian Mistrot described the move as "Trump 101" in his post.
"Pay billions to stop green energy projects (even projects nearly completed)," Mistrot wrote. "Pay hundreds of millions for coal plants which will get slapped down w/ the next Dem administration. Your tax dollars at work."