by Chris Walker | Feb 12, 2026 | Article, Climate, Climate Crisis, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint, Trump
This story was originally published on Truthout on Feb. 12, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump ordered two executive branch departments to take actions that would increase the use of coal in the United States, despite fossil fuels becoming an obsolete form of energy production that is devastating to the health of the planet.
Under his plan, intended to bolster the dwindling U.S. coal industry, the Department of Defense would purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants. Meanwhile, the Department of Energy will be doling out $175 million in upgrades for six coal plants in coal-rich states, including Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Trump announced his plans while hosting an event at the White House, where he also received an “Undisputed Champion of Coal” award from a coal-based special interest group.
“Sir, to show our appreciation, the trophy says ‘the undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal'” pic.twitter.com/D16HNy2CKQ— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2026
“I will sign an executive order that directs the Department of War [sic] to work directly with coal plants on the new power purchasing agreements, ensuring that we have more reliable power and stronger and more resilient grid power, and we’re going to be buying a lot of coal through the military now,” Trump said during the event.
The president’s executive order, which cites a so-called “national emergency” on energy he signed at the start of his second term, also described increasing the use of coal as “a matter of national security, strategic deterrence, and American energy dominance.”
Experts have decried Trump’s claims that there is an energy emergency.
“We’re the world’s number one exporter
by Chris Walker | Feb 12, 2026 | Climate Crisis, Coal, Coal Industry, Donald Trump, Environment, News, Renewable Energy
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump ordered two executive branch departments to take actions that would increase the use of coal in the United States, despite fossil fuels becoming an obsolete form of energy production that is devastating to the health of the planet. Under his plan, intended to bolster the dwindling U.S. coal industry, the Department of Defense would purchase electricity…
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by Amy Goodman | Feb 11, 2026 | Climate Change, Climate Crisis, Deregulation, Emissions, EPA, fossil fuel, Fossil Fuel Industry, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Interview, Lee Zeldin, Trump Administration
In a victory for the fossil fuel industry, a set of Obama-era rules that required the federal government to regulate the emissions of six greenhouse gases is being reversed by the Trump administration. The changes would undo the legal basis of the fight against global warming, as well as remove industrial reporting obligations and roll back emissions standards for cars and trucks.
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by Maximillian Alvarez | Feb 2, 2026 | Climate Crisis, east palestine, Economy and Inequality, Podcast, sacrifice zones, video
It’s been three years since a Norfolk Southern “bomb train” carrying toxic chemicals derailed in the small town of East Palestine, OH, on the night of Feb. 3, 2023. Three days later, Norfolk Southern pressured local authorities to make the disastrous and completely unnecessary decision to empty five giant carloads of vinyl chloride into a ditch and set the contents on fire. The “controlled burn” of vinyl chloride released a massive black chemical plume into the air and exposed residents in East Palestine and the surrounding areas to deadly toxins in one of the worst industrial disasters in US history. Three years later, residents in East Palestine and the surrounding area are still suffering the toxic fallout.
While Norfolk Southern, opportunistic politicians, sensationalist media outlets, and most of the public have moved on and forgotten about the mass poisoning of these residents, we at TRNN have not forgotten them, and we won’t give up on them. I’ve been interviewing and filming reports with residents in and around East Palestine for the past three years, including for our Izzy-Award-winning documentary Trainwreck in ‘Trump Country’: Partisan politics hasn’t helped East Palestine, OH. To commemorate the three-year anniversary, I have compiled here all of my original reporting for TRNN on the Norfolk Southern train derailment and chemical disaster in East Palestine.
Please I beg you, don’t forget about the people affected by this disaster. Listen to their testimonies, share their stories everywhere you can, keep fighting to hold their poisoners accountable. Because what happened to them is a national tragedy and a humanitarian outrage. Because they are working people just like you and me, they
by Chris Walker | Jan 27, 2026 | Climate Change, Climate Crisis, Donald Trump, Environment, extreme cold, Extreme Weather, News, Polar Vortex
In a Truth Social post last week, President Donald Trump questioned the existence of the climate crisis, citing extreme cold weather that was set to hit the country over the weekend. “Record Cold Wave expected to hit 40 States. Rarely seen anything like it before,” Trump said, before delving into his skepticism. “Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain — WHATEVER…
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by Jaclynn Ashly | Jan 23, 2026 | Article, Climate Crisis, Iraq, Politics and Movements: International
In the central Iraqi city of Fallujah, the joy of pregnancy is overshadowed by dread. For many families, the anticipation of new life is replaced by the fear of what might be born into their arms. More than 20 years after the second major US assault on Fallujah in November 2004, its toxic legacy still seeps into the city’s wombs.
For about six weeks, US forces, backed by a British battalion, waged one of the Iraq War’s most ferocious campaigns, saturating the city with white phosphorus and depleted uranium munitions. The assault leveled neighborhoods and killed hundreds of civilians.
Today, researchers warn that toxic remnants remain embedded in Fallujah’s soil, water, air, and the bloodstreams of its residents. Each year, newborns bear the silent inheritance of war: cancers, twisted limbs, missing organs, and severe congenital abnormalities.
“I just want to be like other kids,” says 12-year-old Fatema Ahmed, who was born with debilitating deformities in her arms and legs. “I feel embarrassed to be different like this.” Sitting in her Fallujah home, she stares at the floor, shyly swinging her legs.
Fatema’s mother was likely exposed to toxic material from the US assault, according to the family’s doctor. Fatema is one of scores of children in Fallujah whose bodies carry the scars of a war they never lived through.
The war’s toll is inscribed on Fatema’s body. Born with severe deformities in her arms and legs, she embodies Fallujah’s toxic legacy—one of many children afflicted by conditions that families and experts trace to heavy metals left behind after the 2004 US assaults. Photo by Jaclynn Ashly.
A close-up of Fatema’s arm deformities,
