A diverse group of energy groups have spoken out against the Trump administration’s plan to bail out coal and nuclear plants.
A newly proposed action to bail out coal and nuclear plants is misguided, and would hurt consumers. This is according to a diverse group of energy industry associations, including wind, solar, storage, and others.
This energy coalition issued a number of statements condemning the Administration’s draft plan to bail out coal and nuclear plants across the country.
For example, Amy Farrell, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) Senior Vice President for Government and Public Affairs, said: “Independent energy regulators, grid operators and other experts have gone on the record to declare that orderly power plant retirements do not constitute an emergency for our electric grid. Infrastructure and processes are already in place to ensure that remains the case. The reported proposal would be a misapplication of emergency powers, there’s certainly no credible justification to force American taxpayers to bailout uneconomic power plants.”
Todd Foley, American Council on Renewable Energy Senior Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs (ACORE) said: “The Administration’s draft plan for potential emergency action would be unwarranted, and would actually undermine competitive markets, raising electricity costs to consumers and businesses across the country. Arbitrary market interventions deprive businesses of the certainty they need to invest in power plants of all types, harming not helping electric reliability. We strongly urge the Administration to reject this ill-conceived draft plan and adopt a policy approach that promotes market forces and competition in our nation’s power system, which is the central approach to assure a reliable and affordable grid system in the future.”
Lisa Jacobson, Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) President added: “Resilience and reliability issues are paramount to the electric sector. The portfolio of currently available clean energy technologies and services in the energy efficiency, natural gas and renewable energy sectors – working with other technologies and services – is meeting the needs of the grid affordably and reliably today and can meet the needs of an evolving electric grid into the future. The actions under consideration would impose unnecessary costs on consumers and businesses through increased electricity bills.”
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