The conventional wisdom about U.S. coal's grim prognosis is a tad murkier after President Trump threw unprecedented government weight behind the fuel.

Why it matters: His plan will test whether forces long battering coal — cheap gas, pollution regs, renewables' rise and more — can be thwarted by rising power demand and federal intervention.

🖼️ The big picture: It's early days (hours really), but equity markets are providing an initial verdict on Trump's orders issued yesterday.

• The share prices of U.S. producers like Core Natural Resources, Alliance Resource Partners, Warrior Met Coal, and Peabody Energy rose on the news.

📻 Driving the news: The orders to boost the most CO2-heavy fuel include:

• Pushing DOE to use emergency authorities to keep plants running if shutdowns might hinder reliability or adequate resources.
• Formally designating coal as a "mineral" to unlock support, including Defense Production Act resources, under a separate order last month.
• Leveraging federal loans and other financial support. DOE head Chris Wright signaled he wants to use billions of dollars in DOE loan authority for coal-related projects.
• Using "categorical exclusions" from in-depth study under the National Environmental Policy Act for coal production and export projects.
• Telling the Justice Department to thwart state laws that target fossil fuels.

The intrigue: Trump vowed to rescue coal in his first term, too, but the decline continued.

• But the new efforts arrive as U.S. electricity demand is rising for the first time in many years, partly thanks to AI's energy thirst.
• Some utilities are already pushing back plans to shutter coal-fired plants. Longer lifetimes are more likely than companies building new units.

"If we want to grow America's electricity production meaningfully over the next five or ten years, we [have] got to stop closing coal plants," Wright told CNBC's "Money Movers."

• And while U.S. coal demand has cratered, global use is still growing. Trump's orders push agencies to seek expanded export markets for U.S. coal.

🔭 What we're watching: Strategies from environmentalists — including possible litigation.

• "These orders ignore energy economics and existing legal requirements while degrading public health," said Jennifer Danis, federal energy policy director at NYU law school's Institute for Policy Integrity.

Coal has been losing ground in U.S. power markets for nearly two decades.

• It provided 16% of U.S. power last year, down from half at the turn of the century.

President Trump is pushing the Justice Department to move against state-level climate laws and lawsuits that seek billions of dollars from fossil fuel producers.

Why it matters: States are major climate policy battlegrounds, and New York and Vermont "climate superfund" laws are among the most aggressive of these regional efforts.

• And a wider suite of states and local governments have pending litigation against oil majors and other companies that seek compensation for climate harms.

🚪 What's inside: Trump's executive order against state "overreach" — which name-checks the Vermont and New York laws — calls on AG Pam Bondi to take "all appropriate action" against laws and lawsuits that she deems illegal.

• It also calls on the AG to "recommend any additional Presidential or legislative action necessary" to counter state laws that burden energy and "may be unconstitutional, preempted by federal law, or otherwise unenforceable."

🔍 What we're watching: Whether Trump's order changes the trajectory of pending court cases from industry groups and red states against the New York and Vermont laws, as well as the ongoing litigation against Big Oil.

⚡ Excelsior Energy Capital closed its Renewable Energy Investment Fund II at over $1 billion with Development Bank of Japan Inc. as the anchor investor, the Minnesota-based firm said.

• Why it matters: Capital is still flowing to renewables and storage, despite lots of policy uncertainty that could slow installations in years ahead.

🌳 J.P. Morgan Asset Management closed Campbell Global's Forest & Climate Solutions Fund II at $1.5 billion and said it has $800 million in additional finance.

• Why it matters: Wall Street giants remain active in green finance, even as they back away from industry coalitions and de-emphasize ESG.
• State of play: The fund has a "blended approach" of some timber production and carbon-trapping and other benefits, it claims. Bloomberg has more.

📉 The prominent consultancy Wood Mackenzie cut its 5-year outlook for new U.S. wind power capacity additions by 40%, citing "US policy changes and economic uncertainty."

🧑‍🎓 The Commerce Department is ending $4 million in NOAA climate funding for Princeton University, calling it "no longer in keeping with the Trump Administration's priorities."

• Why it matters: The rationales offered may presage a far wider retreat from NOAA. The agency steers billions of dollars in climate modeling and other areas. Go deeper.

🛑 The FT reports that Trump officials "revoked licences for BP and Shell gas projects in Venezuelan waters intended to supply a massive liquefied natural gas plant critical to Trinidad and Tobago's economy."

• Why it matters: It's the latest move against the Maduro regime, coming after U.S. officials also yanked sanctions exemptions for Chevron and others.

A refreshed GOP bill to slap tariffs on goods made with higher CO2 than domestic versions has new text that would boost the carbon removal industry.

Why it matters: It signals the young sector's growing place in climate policy, even as volumes pulled from the atmosphere remain small.

Driving the news: GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) unveiled their revised "Foreign Pollution Fee Act."

• It aims to "level the playing field" for domestic industries and specifically calls out — and heavily penalizes — China's CO2-intensive manufacturing.
• Covered sectors include metals, cement, fertilizer, solar components and battery inputs.
• The complex fee structure includes tariffs based on the "pollution intensity difference" of imports vs. domestic products.

The intrigue: Getting back to the removal part, companies facing tariffs can lower fees by purchasing durable, verifiable credits.

The bottom line: The rollout put the wider bill in Trump-y terms, saying it battles unfair practices and boosts U.S. industries and exports.

• "That helps fulfill President Trump's goal of rebuilding the Golden Age," Cassidy said in a statement.
• It faces super-long odds now, but carbon tariffs — already getting rolling in Europe — are an emerging part of tradecraft.

Walmart's newest delivery service, which launched this week at a superstore in Mesquite, Texas, marks the debut of a sophisticated pair of mother-baby drones from Zipline.

How it works: An employee places the customer's order inside the baby drone, called the Delivery Zip, about the size of a small cooler.

• The Delivery Zip is then lifted automatically into the belly of the mother Zip, which takes off from a free-standing charging dock in the parking lot.
• At the destination, the aircraft hovers silently at 300 feet while the Delivery Zip is lowered by a tether, using sensors and fans to autonomously stick its high-precision landing.

The bottom line: It's a technological leap over Zipline's original system, which drops packages via parachute.