Trump looks to radically reshape power plant oversight -- and boost coal
Tyson Slocum knew the Trump administration had an aggressive plan to bail out dirty, expensive coal plants. He was just waiting for it to put the idea in writing.
His wait is over. President Donald Trump signed several executive orders on Tuesday to boost the moribund U.S. coal industry. Among those directives, one stands out for its potential to radically reshape how the U.S. regulates power plants: an executive order titled “Strengthening the Reliability and Security of the United States Electric Grid.”
The order instructs Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former gas industry executive who denies that climate change is a crisis, to give the Department of Energy sole control over key grid-reliability decisions currently made by independent agencies. The Energy Department would be empowered to keep unprofitable and polluting coal plants open in the name of reliability — and stick utilities, customers, and communities with the hefty financial and health costs.
Slocum, director of the energy program at nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen, says the executive order closely follows a plan leaked during the first Trump administration to use federal emergency powers to override state, regional, and federal authorities that now govern reliability across the U.S. electricity sector. Administration officials disavowed that approach when it came to light in 2018.
https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/fossil-fuels/trump-coal-power-order-reliability
So much for states' rights and local government.