Trump Orders Perry to Stem Coal, Nuclear Power Plant Closures

[demmiblue]

Source: Bloomberg

President Donald Trump ordered Energy Secretary Rick Perry to take immediate action to stem power plant closures in the name of national security, arguing that a decline in coal and nuclear electricity is putting the nation’s grid at risk, Bloomberg News reports.

"Impending retirements of fuel-secure power facilities are leading to a rapid depletion of a critical part of our nation’s energy mix and impacting the resilience of our power grid," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in an emailed statement Friday. Trump has directed Perry "to prepare immediate steps to stop the loss of these resources and looks forward to his recommendations."

Developing...

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-01/trump-orders-perry-to-stem-coal-nuclear-power-plant-closures

[Thomas Hurt]

1. (sniff) (sniff) Hey! Doesn't this smell like socialism?

[workinclasszero]

18. This is part of Dear Leader Shitler's 5 year plan komrade!

Trump will just order up the economy he wants, ban all thoughts of global climate change, institute state religion and lead us into a glorious future!

for the glorious future part of course.

[Xolodno]

19. Now, now...

Even Scandinavian, Market and European "lite" socialism would adjust for market forces and regulate obsolete jobs to the dust heap while retraining the workers for something new.

Call it for what it is...which is two options;

1. Communism.

2. Corporate Welfare.

I'm opting for the latter...but I may be a bit biased.

[truthisfreedom]

2. Corporate welfare... the republican way of saying thank you

Not for your services, not for your success, but simply for your huge corporate contributions to super pacs.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. It's the same as farm subsidies

we'll be paying electric companies to jolt the (unwanted and unused) electricity into the ground

[Rural_Progressive]

4. Hey wait a second

Isn't the free market supposed to sort all this out automatically?

[PearliePoo2]

5. What's the mad-man going to order next?

Have the Commerce Secretary demand the Electronics Industry gear-up for production of 8-Tracks, cassette tapes and VCRs?

(there's also a recent demand for buggy whips too, I hear.)

FUCKING IDIOT

[Botany]

6. The man is a Russian agent working to bring down America from the inside

n/t

[Crash2Parties]

7. This + tarriffs will kill off solar & wind

also, something I read on the Twitter this morning:

Didn't the Supreme Court rule in Citizen's United that how & where we (human & corporate "persons" alike) choose to spend our money considered Free Speech?

Forcing us to purchase our power from CO2-heavy sources overrides our purchasing decisions & therefore is bridging our free speech.

[JDC]

8. Continuing Trump's long standing practice of bad business

Idiots

[gilligan]

9. Go Solar!

[jpak]

10. How can the POTUS "order" an industry to buy something it doesn't want?

Fascist much?

[sinkingfeeling]

11. What an outstanding dictator.

[SCVDem]

12. Thank you Lyin' Ryan

And the other feckless c###s in Congress who allow our destruction.

[bitterross]

13. The REAL National Security threat is actually doing what he asks.

It will make us less secure as a country to remain dependent on these old technologies and not developing the newer ones the rest of the world is moving toward.

The move toward solar and wind is also the push to develop better localized storage capabilities that would make our grid LESS vulnerable to attack. Remaining on these centralized sources of power that require the vast, complex distribution networks we have now is the greater risk.

[riversedge]

14. plan would exempt power plants from obeying a host of environmental laws and spend billions to keep

Thank god for environmental groups!


https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-demands-immediate-steps-to-keep-coal-plants-open

........The plan would exempt power plants from obeying a host of environmental laws and spend billions to keep coal-fired plants open.

A diverse group of energy industry groups — including oil, natural gas, solar and wind power — condemned the proposal, saying it would raise energy prices and distort markets.

“Unprecedented government intervention in the energy markets to support high-cost generation will hurt customers by taking more money out of their pockets rather than letting people keep more of what they earn,” said Todd Snitchler of the American Petroleum Institute, the top lobbying group for the oil and gas industry................................


Michael Panfil, director of federal energy policy for the Environmental Defense Fund, called Trump’s directive “an unprecedented, illegal government handout” to the coal and nuclear industries and vowed to fight the order in court.

“Americans should not have to pay for dirty, uneconomic coal plants that pollute our environment and make people sick — especially when there are cleaner, more affordable energy options available,” Panfil said...........................

[SWBTATTReg]

15. Your post said it all...this is a gross distortion of the marketplace which ...

has been shifting away from dirty fuels to clean and abundant energy sources. I'd like to think that we're already too far in the pipeline for solar and wind to back out now. Putting new coal and/or nuclear power plants in place will take years and years, and each state's public utility commissions will have an awful lot to say about this since they regulate this area (not the feds, being that states within their borders regulate these industries.

Some states have regulations that mandate a certain % of solar and/or wind to be purchased by utilities in that state, e.g. Missouri has such an agreement in place.

Thus, RUMP can bluster all he wants, but it's going to take years and years, and run counter to what the marketplace is dictating, and also will run up against states' rights.

[TexasTowelie]

16. Kicking to add the comments from Rick Perry on June 4:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210716276

[truthisfreedom]

17. Using corporate welfare, he's dragging us kicking and screaming into the steam age.

[Maxheader]

20. Sure..slow down the

stampede to find better sources of energy. Doubtful
anyone will apply for nuke construction licenses or
open up a new strip pit..