Energy Department told to help coal, nuclear plants
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday directed Energy Secretary Rick Perry to take “immediate steps” to bolster struggling coal-fired and nuclear power plants to keep them open, calling it a matter of national and economic security.
Trump believes that keeping America’s energy grid secure “protects our national security, public safety and economy from intentional attacks and natural disasters,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
Impending retirements of coalfired and nuclear power plants are harming the nation’s electric grid and reducing its resilience, and the president wants immediate action “to stop the loss of these resources,” Sanders said.
Environmental groups decried the support for coal over cleaner energy sources.
The directive comes as the Trump administration considers a plan to order grid operators to buy electricity from coal and nuclear plants to keep them open. The plan would direct regional transmission operators to buy power from coal and nuclear plants for two years to ensure grid reliability, “promote the national defense and maximize domestic energy supplies.”
Robert Murray, chairman and
CEO of Murray Energy Corp., the nation’s largest privately owned coal company, hailed the White House announcement.
“We support all efforts to ensure the security of our nation’s electric power supply, which is critical to the reliability of our electric power grids, to low-cost electricity and to our national defense,” Murray said Friday in a statement.