US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed executive orders to "turbocharge coal mining" in the country, seeking to "more than double" electricity production to keep up with power-hungry artificial intelligence technology.

The executive orders, which Trump signed surrounded by miners in hard hats, will lift regulatory barriers to coal extraction and suspend the planned closures of numerous coal-fired power plants across the country.

"We will end the government bias against coal," said the Republican, who instructed the Department of Justice to identify and fight any state or local regulations that were "putting our coal miners out of business."

Trump also said that it would be "possible to extract enormous amounts of critical minerals and rare earths, which, you know, we need for technology and high technology in the process of coal mining."

Lena Moffitt, director of the climate NGO Evergreen, criticised the president in a statement for using artificial intelligence as "a cover to bail out his fossil fuel donors with the dirtiest, most expensive power source on the grid."

Production of coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, has fallen sharply in the United States over the last 15 years.

In 2023, coal accounted for just over 16 percent of total electricity production, outstripped by renewable energies at just over 21 percent.

Trump has long been a sceptic of climate change, and since his return to the White House has set about boosting fossil fuels through deregulation.

Last month, his administration announced a wave of environmental rollbacks targeting the green policies of his predecessor Joe Biden.

Among the most significant of them was revisiting a 2024 rule that requires coal-fired plants to eliminate nearly all their carbon emissions or commit to shutting down altogether, a cornerstone of Biden's climate agenda. (AFP)