1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Block this $700 million coal bailout. Using the Defense Production Act to prop up coal plants isn't an energy policy — it's a taxpayer-funded subsidy for a dying industry that produces the most expensive, most polluting electricity available. Coal is more costly to build and operate than wind or solar. This won't lower energy bills. It will raise them. Coal production is already less than half of what it was in 2008. The market moved on. Cheap natural gas and affordable renewables displaced coal because they're better and cheaper — not because of regulation. Researchers have linked air pollution from coal plants to 460,000 deaths in the US between 1999 and 2020. Keeping these plants running doesn't protect communities; it poisons them. My tax dollars should not be used to resurrect an industry the market already buried. Oppose this bailout and push instead for investment in wind, solar, and the grid infrastructure that will actually bring costs down.