San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
On Energy Policy Trump’s flawed scheme to prop up coal industry
T
he juice running through the nation’s power lines is a testimony to market forces and public choices. Natural gas, solar and wind power are on the upswing with coal-fired sources dropping and nuclear plants on life support. The newer supplies pollute less and moderate climate change. President Trump doesn’t see it that way. He’s pushing the notion of “national security” in asking for “immediate steps” that will prop up coal generation and nuclear plants that supply electricity.
His directive to Energy Secretary Rick Perry could stop the closing of unprofitable and pollution-spewing coal plants and struggling nuclear facilities around the country. This idea doesn’t drain the swamp, Mr. President. It fills it to the brim with more tax subsidies, central planning and economic nonsense.
The Trump team is asking the Energy Department to order electric grid operators to buy noncompetitive coal and nuclear plants. These sources are being priced out as renewables and natural gas become cheaper. The White House also claims that the coal and nuclear installations are a needed backup in the event of a hurricane, power disruption or similar disaster.
But grid operators and energy suppliers don’t agree. There’s sufficient energy available to plug lapses or blackouts in ways that don’t involve atmosphere-clogging emissions of greenhouse gases. In the case of nuclear plants, there are problems with costs, lengthy construction and waste disposal.
Credit Trump with unswerving loyalty to coal. He’s repeatedly staged coal-country rallies pledging to shore up its flagging fortunes. His administration is revoking the anti-pollution rules embodied in the Clean Air Plan that obliged coal plants to emit less. Perry has argued that coal and nuclear sources were more reliable and worth the extra cost, contentions that haven’t persuaded the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to support him. That powerful regulatory panel, populated with Trump appointees, didn’t buy Perry’s arguments before and may not again if the coal bailout comes their way.
Trump is trying a new approach. He’s leaning on laws that give Washington the right to stem an industrial crisis or a threat to national security that could doom the economy. But the president is going too far by handing a blank check to unprofitable firms in a diminishing sector.
The president’s willful ignorance about the country’s changing energy diet may cripple his strategy. Also, an energy market with competing options may produce an angry chorus and possible lawsuits to block the White House. The rest of the country should be just as upset at putting a polluting industry on the public dole.