9/29/2017

ENERGY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration is urging independent federal energy regulators to change how electricity is priced, proposing new rules that could bolster revenue for coal-fired and nuclear power plant owners.
The Energy Department is mandating that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission consider new rules that would effectively raise power prices to pay more to plants considered more resilient. The department suggests nuclear and coal-fired plants as potential recipients, and charges FERC with tweaking electricity markets so they give more of a reward to plants that have at least three months of fuel on site and can run uninterrupted through extreme weather, disasters or other emergencies.
The department can require FERC, which regulates wholesale power markets, to consider the changes, but the commission is under no obligation to make them. FERC officials had no immediate comment.
The move is the administration’s latest attempt to support fossil-fuel businesses. It has worked to roll back or delay rules its officials say were unwieldy and unfair attempts by the Obama administration to promote renewable power. But environmentalists and other critics see the trend as a political effort to follow up a presidential campaign heavy on promises to the fossil-fuel industry and denials of climate change.”

-Timothy Puko, “Energy Department Urges Pricing Shift that Could Bolster Coal, Nuclear,” The Wall Street Journal online, Sept. 29, 2017 11:20am