Trump administration proposes mandating purchase of coal, nuclear power, citing national security


On Friday, the White House National Security Council is schedule to review a draft proposal from the Energy Department that would order power grid operators to buy energy from ailing coal and nuclear power plants, citing national security needs, Bloomberg News reports, calling the proposal "an unprecedented intervention into U.S. energy markets." Coal and nuclear plants are closing down due to age and market forces — natural gas and renewable energy are cheaper and cleaner — and the proposal is pitched as a "prudent stop-gap measure" that will subsidize struggling coal and nuclear plants while the Energy Department conducts a two-year study on "grid security challenges."
This isn't Energy Secretary Rick Perry's first attempt to subsidize coal and nuclear plants — federal regulators shot down his plan to directly compensate those plants in January, saying there's no evidence closing coal-fired plants would endanger the electric grid and such a move would raise costs for consumers. But this new 41-page proposal, dated May 29 and marked "not for further distribution," relies on emergency powers under the Federal Power Act and the 68-year-old Defense Production Act. Experts told Bloomberg that invoking national security concerns could stave off challenges this time around.
Saving coal and nuclear plants is a top priority for some of President Trump's major donors, and Trump has made saving coal a public crusade, but it wasn't clear if "Trump had signed off on the action nor when any order might be issued," Bloomberg said. Critics of bailing out coal producers, including natural gas and renewable energy advocates, say there are better, cheaper ways to safeguard the power grid than meddling with energy markets. You can read more about the proposal at Bloomberg News.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
August 23 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include deficit dimness, steamroller-in-chief, and more
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purge
Cartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?
In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year