Trump Administration Is Weighing Emergency Aid for Some Coal Plants
Source: Bloomberg News
By Catherine Traywick , Jennifer A Dlouhy , and Ari Natter
February 8, 2018, 8:34 PM EST Updated on February 9, 2018, 7:00 AM EST
After failing to win a bailout for cash-strapped coal plants, some Trump administration officials are considering emergency orders that could keep at least some coal generators online, people familiar with the discussions said.
The approach would require Rick Perry to use his authority as U.S. energy secretary to spur emergency compensation for coal plants run by FirstEnergy Solutions that may be at risk of shutting, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Some Energy Department officials are weighing this option after federal regulators rejected a proposal by Perry last month to pay coal plants more for their “resilience,” they said. FirstEnergy hasn’t formally requested the aid, one of the people said.
When asked to confirm the talks, agency spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said “that is not correct information” but declined to provide further detail. The Energy Department’s press department later posted on Twitter that sources were “misinformed” on the consideration.
The FirstEnergy Solutions plants in question were at the heart of the Trump administration’s plan to compensate nuclear and coal generators more for their power. The proposal was rejected last month by members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that Trump appointed who said it would violate U.S. law.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-09/rick-perry-is-said-to-be-weighing-another-way-to-save-coal-units
= new reply since forum marked as read
(snip)
You don't bring nothing with you here
And you can't take nothing back
I ain't never seen a hearse, with a luggage rack.
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Good song, see:
This is one you have to hear on a big system to appreciate. Some of the best pickers on the planet such as Brain Sutton and Brent Mason happened to play on this one.
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the coal-fired plants and in coal transportation. A few of those are being retrained and/or relocated to run the new gas turbines.
However, most of those folks would also be excellent employees for building grid-level solar systems, high-speed rail and wind generation systems. Just requires a plan, some organization and funding, and the will. That's what the Department of Energy should be doing, IMO.
I do agree about the minimum wage to help keep our retail and community social spaces from dying.
Did a lot of service jobs up and down the Ohio before retiring, mainly chemical and power plants and mills. Good work ethic, so these folks can adapt. Never forget seeing the shuttered industries and desperate communities on the river, including in Pittsburgh.
That's why it's so important for us to re-capture our government so it works to help people first rather than corporate interests. Corporate America and international corps have shown us hundreds of times that they could care less about people laid off, as plants, stores and mines close to enhance corporate interests.
We should be a taking preemptive smart approach as an industry begins to struggle and start the process of retraining, and give folks basic support until they can make it again on their own. Further, the companies causing the dilemma should be required to help.
tRump did America a terrible disservice by implying that the coal industry can be revived. Having working in many of these plants, I know they are very capital investment intensive in that they require very expensive annual maintenance costs, and then there's the issue of ash disposal that really never has been addressed. Those are among the reasons natural gas drove the last nail in that coffin.
Oh wait...we're already subsidizing tRump properties.
