View this email in a web browser.
Murkowski airs ‘great deal of hesitation’ on Trump grid plan
A key Republican senator is questioning the rationale cited by the Trump administration as it looks to prop up struggling coal and nuclear plants. Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told E&E News yesterday that though she hasn’t finished digesting the 40-page leaked document under consideration by the White House, she isn’t sold on the notion that the action is needed on national security grounds. “I have been one that has said I didn’t think the national security argument that this really merited that situation,” she said. [ read more … ]
Top energy regulator points to problematic wartime language in Trump’s coal bailout plan
FERC’s McIntyre, who gave a keynote speech at the EIA conference on Tuesday, told reporters after his talk that he found certain language in the Defense Production Act problematic if it were used to benefit coal and nuclear plants. “The opening phrase uses something along the lines of ‘in a time of continuing war,’” noted McIntyre, who was appointed chairman of the agency by Trump. “It has the feel of a kind of wartime emergency.” [ read more … ]
Judge to EPA: Show your science
EPA must produce the opposing body of science Administrator Scott Pruitt has relied upon to claim that humans are not the primary drivers of global warming, a federal judge has ruled. The EPA boss has so far resisted attempts to show the science backing up his claims. His critics say such evidence doesn’t exist, even as Pruitt has called for greater science transparency at the agency. [ read more … ]
Policy & Politics
Trump’s coal plan finds critics inside the West Wing
White House officials have yet to reach a consensus over a Department of Energy proposal to subsidize ailing coal and nuclear plants, a top aide told a group of clean energy advocates at the White House yesterday. Francis Brooke, a senior energy adviser to President Trump, told members of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) that it could take months to decide the fate of a DOE plan to help struggling coal and nuclear facilities, according to two people in attendance. [ read more … ]
FERC could have role in Trump’s plan for coal, nuclear
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could have a part to play in a plan brewing at the White House and Department of Energy to rescue struggling coal and nuclear plants, FERC Chairman Kevin McIntyre said today. A memo leaked to Bloomberg News last week revealed DOE is contemplating using its authority under two rarely used laws — the Defense Production Act and Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act — to order electric grid operators to make payments to certain coal and nuclear power plants. [ read more … ]
Trump can’t save coal, experts say
Simply put, the U.S. coal industry is in terminal decline due to cheaper natural gas and renewables, and increasingly hard-to-get coal and environmental regulations, according to analysts. While Trump wants to extend Appalachian coal a lifeline — an admirable goal in his supporters’ point of view — it’s not a sustainable one. The next president can easily reverse course, said Sarah Hunt, chief executive of the Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy. What isn’t likely to change is the economics facing coal. [ read more … ]
Gov. Brown prods companies to disclose emissions
A group led by California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and others is calling on hundreds of businesses, cities, states and regions to disclose their carbon emissions and meet goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Brown and other co-chairs of the Global Climate Action Summit — an event scheduled for September in San Francisco — urged the disclosures yesterday. [ read more … ]
Ariz. utility spends big to stop renewable mandate
The parent company of Arizona’s biggest utility is investing millions of dollars to defeat a ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to mandate that 50 percent of regulated utilities’ power come from renewables by 2030. Officials with the utility, Arizona Public Service Co., say the initiative would restrict flexibility and precipitate the shuttering of coal and nuclear plants by 2025. [ read more … ]
FERC and climate change: Where are we now?
Federal regulators’ recent move to set limits on climate analysis for natural gas pipelines raises new questions about the government’s environmental obligations and how courts might get involved. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last month announced its intention to trim climate reviews for some pipeline applications — analyzing the greenhouse gas emissions from production and consumption of natural gas only when specific information about the source or end use of gas is available.
[ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.