By Laila Kearney and Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is urging utilities across the country to keep coal-fired power plants running longer, in part to help deliver the vast amount of electricity needed to fuel artificial intelligence, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Reuters on Thursday.

Delaying the retirement of often half-century-old coal plants is part of a broader strategy to increase the country’s power output that will also include boosting nuclear energy and allowing backup power plants to operate around the clock.

The administration has made expanding energy production a top priority while rejecting concerns about climate change, which Trump told the United Nations this week amounted to a global “con job.”

“We’ve got to s

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