Tuesday, January 9, 2018

REJECTED! Trump Wanted National Industrial Subsidization Policy for Coal Industry


Paul Krugman is correct when he writes:
This is actually pretty amazing: Trump/Perry wanted an industrial policy that subsidized coal and nuclear at the expense of renewables and natural gas. Trump's own appointees said no
The New York Times reports:
Federal regulators on Monday rejected a proposal by Energy Secretary Rick Perry to subsidize struggling coal and nuclear plants, in a major blow to the Trump  administration’s efforts to revive America’s declining coal industry... 
President Trump has vowed to revive the ailing coal-mining industry, and his administration has moved to relax a variety of climate and pollution regulations on the nation’s coal plants. So far, however, those rollbacks have failed to halt the market forces that continue to drive coal plants into retirement. Last year, utilities announced plans to shut down more than 22 gigawatts of coal capacity across the country, and more retirements are expected this year.
Mr. Perry’s proposal was the most aggressive move yet in support of coal and nuclear power and would have shielded a number of plants in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic from those competitive forces.
There, of course, shouldn't be subsidies for any industry but it is something to see when a regulator rejects a proposed industrial policy of the sitting administration.

 -RW

5 comments:

  1. FERC is revolving door central. In many ways, it exemplifies the idea of the Deep State or Permanent Government, and they know Trumo is at best a one-hit wonder in ending the Deep State.

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    1. I wonder if this will make Trump want to scrap the FERC

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    2. We can only hope. I wish people would rise up against the state-granted utility monopolies as well. In some ways, FERC does a slightly better job than the state utility commissions.

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    3. The sad part is that people think electric and especially TV/Internet actually operate in a free market when in reality they don't combinations of state, local and federal laws happen competition.

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    4. Yep. I wish our knowledge of the inner workings of the Rube Goldberg machine called government would cancel out the ignorant who insist they do the right thing by not knowing yet still voting. It's their decision to vote that hampers our freedom!

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