[5] The organization seeks to influence public opinion and legislation in favor of coal-generated electricity in the United States, placing emphasis on the development and deployment of clean coal technologies.

Since carbon capture and sequestration—which ACCCE and its member companies advocate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal burning—has yet to be tested on a large scale, some have questioned whether this approach is feasible or realistic.

2454), to which it argued that regulations relating to carbon emissions in the proposed legislation would have led to increased energy costs and reduction in employment – potentially placing additional strain on the economy during the late 2000s recession.

[8] In addition to legislative methods employed by ACCCE, the organization has engaged in consumer-focused advocacy efforts in response to perceived environmental effects surrounding clean coal,[8] consisting of direct to consumer advertising, as well as a group of approximately 225,000 volunteers (referred to as "America's Power Army," according to their website[18]) involved in "visiting town hall meetings, fairs and other functions attended by members of Congress (to) ask questions about energy policy.

"[19] Initiatives of this form became the subject of news coverage surrounding the 2008 United States presidential election, as the organization's presence at the Democratic National Convention, Republican National Convention, presidential debates and other events has been described[8][20] as having impacted both Senators John McCain and Barack Obama's positions in regards to investment in clean coal.

[20] The organization actively countered President Obama's climate change agenda, arguing in 2013 that the industry had "made strides toward making coal more environmentally friendly", with ten new clean-coal technology plants having built between 2011 and mid-2013, and five more in development or scheduled to begin operations at that time.

For example in a 2014 report it said that human-caused climate change was a "hypothesis" and a "debate" and claimed that carbon pollution would be beneficial instead of negative and that its benefits could be up to 400 times as high as its costs.

[28] When the forgery was exposed, and faced with a proposed Congressional investigation, ACCCE apologized to the community groups and to the members of Congress involved.

"[28] An investigation of ACCCE by U.S. Representative Edward Markey, launched in response to the forgeries, disclosed an additional set of fraudulent letters sent to lawmakers to lobby against the environmental legislation.