This story is part of our Quick Hits series. This series will bring you breaking news and short updates from throughout the state.

Pres. Donald Trump signed four executive orders on April 8 supporting the coal industry.

Wyoming is the nation’s top coal producer. All of the state’s D.C. delegation, along with the governor, were present at the signing.

“Cynthia Lummis,” Trump said from a podium in the East Wing, flanked by hard-hatted miners as he called out representatives, senators and governors present at the signing. “Fantastic woman. She believes – she believes like I do in these people, right?”

Coal consumption in the U.S. has dropped by about half since 2010. Economic experts say it’s because of market conditions that have existed under Presidents Biden, Trump and Obama. As technologies develop and climate change becomes more of a concern to the consumer, other forms of energy are cheaper and lower risk.

Trump said he’s granting “immediate relief” to an unspecified 47 companies operating 66 coal plants across the country.

That includes expediting leases, streamlining permitting for coal mining on federal land and removing regulations that block new mines. No coal companies have bought a new coal mining lease in Wyoming since 2012.

Trump said “turbocharging” the industry with government funds is necessary to supply the nation’s energy needs, especially AI data centers.

According to NPR, he downplayed the fear of rising temperatures and sea levels caused by climate change, saying it would create “a little bit more waterfront property.”

The four orders are:

• Strengthening the reliability and security of the United States electric grid
• Protecting American energy from state overreach
• Regulatory relief for certain stationary sources to promote American energy
• Reinvigorating America’s beautiful clean coal industry and amending executive order 14241

Wyoming reactions

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) shared a statement shortly after the signing.

"I am thrilled that President Trump is reversing the failed energy policies of the Biden administration and officially lifting this ridiculous moratorium on federal coal leasing,” Lummis wrote. “The previous administration's anti-science, anti-energy, anti-Wyoming policies cost good paying jobs, increased energy costs, and played into the hands of America's adversaries. President Trump knows that increased American energy is a strength, not a weakness. As America's leading coal-producing state, Wyoming stands ready and able to support President Trump's initiative to expand and Unleash American Energy."

Rep. Harriet Hageman also cheered the executive orders. Her office wrote policies like overturning the Bureau of Land Management’s Buffalo Resource Management Plan and increasing coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, one of the largest coal deposits in the country that straddles the Wyoming-Montana border, are included in the president’s order.

“Coal is the energy of the future – Wyoming understands that, and so does President Trump,” Hageman wrote in a statement. “This is yet another promise made and delivered from President Trump, and one which rightly recognizes that coal is key to powering the great American comeback. Decades of dystopian environmental policies manifested in the Obama and Biden presidencies, the Inflation Reduction Act, and more, all designed to shutter Wyoming and decrease the affordability and reliability of American power. I do not believe that the role of the federal government is to force despair on its people, and neither does President Trump. Today is a win for Wyoming and a win for America.”

Gov. Mark Gordon said in a statement, “While the EOs are a great first step, the real focus must not only be extending the life of coal-fired generating plants nearing retirement, but to actually pave the way to building new power plants. These are essential to our future. Wyoming is ready to lead the way and be a partner in that process. I encourage all Wyoming utility companies to carefully examine the possibilities provided in these EOs in order to increase the use of coal and other sources of electricity to see that Wyomingites and other consumers have affordable, reliable, and dependable energy.”

Meanwhile, conservation groups like Earthjustice are sounding the alarm.

“Coal is a disaster for our health, our wallets and the plane,” Jill Tauber, vice president of litigation for climate and energy, said in a statement. “President Trump’s efforts to rescue failing coal plants and open our lands to destructive mining is another in a series of actions that sacrifices American lives for fossil fuel industry profit. Instead of investing in pollution, we should be leading the way on clean energy.”