Korean War law could be used to help coal industry

Act gives broad power to marshal critical supplies

WASHINGTON – The Energy Department is looking into whether it can keep struggling coal and nuclear plants open by invoking a 68-year-old law designed to make sure the nation has the resources it needs in times of war or natural disaster.

The Defense Production Act of 1950, approved by Congress in response to the start of the Korean War, gives the president a broad range of powers to in effect nationalize private industry for the nation’s defense.

Those powers include presidential authority to require businesses to sign contracts or fulfill orders deemed necessary for national security. The president also could authorize loans, loan guarantees and other incentives to expand production and supply of materials and goods and even authorize the government to buy and install equipment for private industrial use.

Energy experts say that invoking the act to benefit coal or any other industry that is struggling financially because of unfavorable market forces would be a sweeping and unprecedented use of the law.

But those advocating such a move say it’s warranted because numerous coal-fired and nuclear plants are in danger of closing or retirement, putting the reliability of the nation’s electricity grid at risk.

“The security of our homeland is inextricably tied to the security of our energy supply,” Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., who first broached the idea, wrote in a letter to President Trump last month. “The ability to produce reliable electricity is critical to ensuring our nation’s security against the various threats facing us today — whether those threats be extreme weather events or adversarial foreign actors,” he wrote.

A coal-fired plant churns out electricity in Holcomb, Kan. Coal plants are on the decline, but the industry says they offer grid reliability. CHARLIE RIEDEL/AP