Trump to Grant Lifeline to Money-Losing Coal Power Plants

[herding cats]

Source: Bloomberg

Trump administration officials are making plans to order grid operators to buy electricity from struggling coal and nuclear plants in an effort to extend their life, a move that would represent an unprecedented intervention into U.S. energy markets.

The Energy Department would exercise emergency authority under a pair of federal laws to direct the operators to purchase electricity or electric generation capacity from at-risk facilities, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg News. The agency also is making plans to establish a "Strategic Electric Generation Reserve" with the aim of promoting the national defense and maximizing domestic energy supplies.

“Federal action is necessary to stop the further premature retirements of fuel-secure generation capacity,” says a 41-page draft memo circulated before a National Security Council meeting on the subject to be held on Friday.

The plan cuts to the heart of a debate over the reliability and resiliency of a rapidly evolving U.S. electricity grid. Nuclear and coal-fired power plants are struggling to compete against cheap natural gas and renewable electricity. As nuclear and coal plants are decommissioned, regulators have been grappling with how to ensure that the nation’s power system can withstand extreme weather events and cyber attacks.



Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-01/trump-said-to-grant-lifeline-to-money-losing-coal-power-plants-jhv94ghl

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Link to tweet

[jpak]

1. So much free market winning

yup

[BumRushDaShow]

5. THIS

The "free market" now means being "free" to manipulate.

[truthisfreedom]

2. Gotta buy those votes with gubbmint money!

[mindem]

3. What ever happened

to the repuke mantra "government shouldn't be in the business of picking winners and losers"?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Corporate welfare for loser companies. Who are the real welfare queens now?

Squeeze the poor and middle class to pay tax cut for 0.1% and then squeeze them again to subsidize the 0.1% loser legacy industries.

People who voted for tRump and RepubliCONs are such suckers.

[Maxheader]

6. Wait till they start telling citizens...

which grocery stores are open..only stores who are buddies
with the guv..for everything..lumber for a new home..clothes,
cars...Leave dementia boy in office long enough, you can
kiss freedom goodbye.

[Achilleaze]

7. Why do Dirty Donny* & republican cronies HATE free market capitalism?

freaking republican hypocrites are so full of shit...Instead of squandering our tax money on golf today, as they usually do, they are squandering on a filthy, polluting, and non-competitive industry. Sick and sad.


* aka republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Because they are no good at it. Don the Con had at least four maybe 6 bankruptcies. . . . nt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. Dotard economics

[sinkingfeeling]

9. Are we fascist yet?

[neeksgeek]

11. In other news...

Businesses will soon be ordered to buy adding machines and pnuematic message tubes to replace those newfangled “electronic computers.”

[Vinca]

12. So the GOP doesn't believe in a free market economy anymore????

Let's remember this whenever the cost of health insurance is discussed again.

[bucolic_frolic]

13. By this logic and authority, Trump could order us to spend, buy, donate at will

You must buy a new car, stay at Trump hotels, donate to Trump Foundation etc etc etc

I think often about distortions in the US economy. All that QE has brought us a lot of overcapacity in everything. Next recession a lot of it will go under, making the recession worse. Think housing bubble applied to everything.

Tariffs cause distortion. Gives unproductive domestic capacity a boost, starves them overseas. Causes retaliation. We will eventually face shortages of some things from overseas. Critical things. Spare parts, supplies, techology. You can't tinker with a lightly-regulated free market at will. Autocracy creates winners and losers. One should never reward losers in an economy. They are losers for a reason: obsolescence, debt, inferiority, stupidity, mental rigidity. Losers.

Trump rewards losers. Like himself.

I'm all but off-grid at the moment - Wood, solar, and conservation. Wish more people would choose alternatives too

[Scurrilous]

14. "to ensure that the nation's power system can withstand extreme weather events and cyber attacks."

And what is causing extreme weather events? And who is most likely to conduct cyber attacks against us?

[dajoki]

16. Good one!

[Scurrilous]

17. ...

[Wuddles440]

15. Nothing to see here folks....

taxpayers have been subsidizing petroleum companies with billions of dollars every year for decades. This is just the natural progression of that welfare program. Don't you know, corporate moochers and grifters aren't the problem - it's entitlements, immigrants, consumer protections, environmental regulations, and any thing else for the common good.

[modrepub]

18. Impacts New Gas Plants Too

There are probably dozens of new gas plants being constructed with billions of dollars invested in their future operation. If Trump makes the grid operators set aside a certain amount of electricity for old inefficient coal/nuclear plants then that's less available for the new plants that were projected to come online. With less sales available to these new gas plants there's a risk of investors/banks not being able to recoup their investments. These people have no idea how capitalism works.