The Trump administration announced Wednesday it would give $175 million to the owners of six coal-fired power plants, including two in Ohio, to “modernize” operations.
One of those plants in Southeast Ohio is part of the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation, a Cold War-era relic. A series of regulatory actions and state laws forced Ohio to cover more than $679 million in losses incurred by the plants’ owners – investor-owned electric utilities American Electric Power, Duke Energy and AES Ohio – between about 2014 and 2025 when lawmakers ended the bailout.
Another sum of the federal money will go to two of three Cardinal coal plant units near Steubenville, one of which was slated for retirement in 2028.
The U.S. Department of Energy said the money will “modernize, retrofit, and extend the useful life” of the coal plants. It comes amid fears of data centers spiking the nation’s electricity grids’ thirst for electricity while market forces and environmental regulations pressure coal plants to shut down.
“President Trump has ended the war on American coal and is restoring common-sense energy policy,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “These investments will keep America’s coal plants operating, keep costs low for Americans, and ensure we have the reliable power needed to keep the lights on and power our future.”
The release doesn’t specify which plants will receive what share of the money, but it’s likely insignificant at scale. For instance, OVEC reported about $794 million in revenue last year, against more than $712 million in debt from environmental infrastructure upgrades.
But the $175 million is part of a broader package of $525 million in funding to “expand and reinvigorate America’s coal industry,” according to the DOE. And it comes as the Trump administration is rolling back the “endangerment finding” that gives the federal government a legal basis to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases, and as the Department of Defense is seeking to strike deals with coal power plant owners to fuel its operations.
The money was appropriated by Congress to target grid resiliency, energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction, according to Neil Waggoner, Midwest Beyond Coal Campaign Manager, in contrast to the dirty and pollutive nature of old coal plants.
He described the money as a handout to the plant owners, while Americans are stuck paying more to keep inefficient plants online.
“Let’s call this what it is: a giant bailout for the coal industry,” he said. “Trump has shown time and time again that he loves driving up our costs in order to bail out his buddies in the coal and fossil fuel industries, and this is yet another example of it.”
AEP spokesperson Scott Blake said he didn’t know a final total the OVEC plants received, but said it originally asked for $33 million.
“The goal is to enhance the plant’s operational efficiency, reliability, and overall power generation capacity,” he said. “Ultimately, these efforts will contribute to the affordability and security of the national power grid by improving unit reliability, reducing unplanned downtime, and increasing power generation.”
Signal Ohio reached out to Buckeye Power, owner of the Cardinal plants, for comment.
‘It’s disgusting’
The federal action is something of a gut punch for those who spent years trying to get Ohio ratepayers out of the OVEC arrangement. The bailout was temporary, ordered by regulators at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio at first, and confined to just the Ohioans whose utilities owned a stake in the OVEC plants.
A 2019 state law then broadened the scope to require all Ohioans to pay up, and extended the terms of the bailout from about 2024 to 2030.
An overhaul of Ohio’s energy policy enacted in 2025 ended the OVEC surcharge. It was a potent enough issue to unite Democrats with Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, a powerful Republican, who characterized bailouts as padding for the owners’ wallets despite the lofty rhetoric around supporting American coal. The legislation saved ratepayers more than $582 million through 2030 that otherwise would have gone to the plants’ owners, according to the Legislative Service Commission.
Spokespersons for Huffman and Ohio Senate President Rob McColley didn’t respond to inquiries.
But Ohio Sen. Casey Weinstein, a Democrat who fought for years to win an OVEC repeal, had a simple response to the federal government reviving at least a small part of the de facto bailout.
“It’s disgusting,” he said.