Politics and Money

[PegnVA]

WHAT KILLED TRUMP'S COCKAMIE COAL PLAN
Rick Perry's idea to prop up dirty and unsafe energy sources was reviled by just about everyone -- even the president's appointees.
By Justin Fox, January 9, 2018, 3:35 PM EST

President Donald Trump promised to bring back coal. In a ham-handed attempt to make his boss happy, Energy Secretary Rick Perry in September proposed forcing electrical utilities to heavily subsidize coal and nuclear plants in the name of ensuring a "reliable, resilient energy grid."

Thanks to a quirk of legislative history, though, the Department of Energy can't just issue such a regulation on its own. When Congress established the department in 1977 in the wake of the first oil crisis, it ensured that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the successor to the Federal Power Commission it had created in 1920 and laden with new responsibilities several times since, would continue to set rules for electricity generation, among other things.

This is how it came to pass that on Monday, the five members of the FERC -- four of them appointed by Trump! -- effectively told Perry to take his Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and shove it. The commission said it will "remain vigilant with respect to resilience challenges," but that Perry's approach wasn't compatible with the competitive electricity markets that have evolved under FERC guidance over the past two decades.
-bloomberg.com, January 9, 2018

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-01-09/what-killed-trump-s-cockamamie-coal-plan