The Misguided Rick Perry Plan To Support Old Energy

Rick Perry’s Anti-Market Plan to Help Coal

Jody Freeman and Joseph Goffman, October 25, 2017 (NY Times)

“…[The Trump Energy Department is trying to prop up the struggling coal industry by doing something very un-Republican — subsidizing it. Last month, Rick Perry, the secretary of energy, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — the independent agency that regulates electricity markets — to adopt a new rule to pay certain coal and nuclear plants more than they would otherwise earn in a competitive market...for electricity that competitors could produce, and are already producing, more cheaply. Mr. Perry’s plan is premised on two unfounded claims: First, it assumes that coal and nuclear power plants, because they can stockpile fuel on site, are uniquely able to enhance the ‘reliability and resiliency’ of the electric power grid, especially in times of fuel supply disruptions. Second, it assumes that those plants are being driven out of business by unfair subsidies to renewable-energy producers, as Mr. Perry has repeatedly claimed or implied. But a Department of Energy study conducted under Mr. Perry’s direction concluded…the retirements of aging coal and nuclear plants…have not compromised reliability…” click here for more

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