Staff and wire reports
The Herald-Dispatch
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has rejected a coal industry push to issue a rarely used emergency order protecting coal-fired power plants.
The U.S. Department of Energy has decided the order is unnecessary, and the White House agrees, according to The Associated Press.
The Energy Department says it considered issuing the emergency order sought by companies seeking relief for plants it says are overburdened by environmental regulations and market stresses.
President Donald Trump had committed to the measure in private conversations with executives from Murray Energy Corp. and FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. after public events in July and an early August rally in Huntington, according to letters obtained by The Associated Press.
The letters from Murray Energy and its chief executive, Robert Murray, said failing to act would cause thousands of coal miners to be laid off and put the pensions of thousands more in jeopardy. One of Murray’s letters said Trump agreed and told Energy Secretary Rick Perry, “I want this done,” in Murray’s presence.
The White House declined to comment on Murray’s assertion. A spokesman for Murray Energy, Gary Broadbent, also declined to comment on the letters.
Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said the agency was sympathetic to the coal industry’s plight.
“We look at the facts of each issue and consider the authorities we have to address them, but with respect to this particular case at this particular time, the White House and the Department of Energy are in agreement that the evidence does not warrant the use of this emergency authority,” Hynes said in a statement Sunday.
Meanwhile, in West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice said earlier this month that one of the reasons he switched political parties from Democrat to Republican was because he is a good friend of the Republican Trump.
“I have the ear of this president,” Justice said in a news conference after officially making the change.
Justice claimed he had developed a plan to put tens of thousands of coal miners back to work in West Virginia and across Appalachia, while providing a critical addition to national security and the stabilization of the Eastern Seaboard’s power grid.
“Keeping our Eastern coalfields and our miners working is critical to national security,” Justice said in a prepared statement. “All it is going to take to shut the power grid down to the entire Eastern half of the country is a bomb being placed at a key natural gas pipeline or on a major highway artery to the West. Chaos would ensue.”
Justice, whose family has interests in several coal mines in the region, said then that he had already met with Trump and had presented his plan that calls for $4.5 billion annually in federal funding to power companies that burn steam coal mined in Northern and Central Appalachia. It calls for federal funding to pay Eastern power plants $15 for each ton of thermal coal they buy from the Central or Northern Appalachian region, which includes states such as West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The governor claims this incentive would guarantee that Eastern coal would be available to keep the power grid up and operational in the event of any type of emergency shutdown that would affect power plants utilizing natural gas or coal produced in other areas of the country.
“When the power grid gets compromised, the coal from Appalachia can be trucked to our power plants so they can be put back online as quickly as possible,” Justice said. “If we don’t do this and protect our Eastern coalfields, we will be putting the country at great risk.”
Justice’s plan did not say an emergency order was needed, but it appears to be very similar to the promise Murray claims in his letters.
Justice’s office did not respond to an email or telephone messages seeking comment.
The aid Murray sought from Trump involves invoking a little-known section of the U.S. Federal Power Act that allows the Energy Department to temporarily intervene when the nation’s electricity supply is threatened by an emergency, such as war or natural disaster. Among other measures, it temporarily exempts power plants from obeying environmental laws.
In the past, the authority has been used sparingly, such as during the California energy crisis in 2000 and following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Obama administration never used it. The Trump administration has used it twice in seven months in narrow instances.
Murray’s company is seeking a two-year moratorium on closures of coal-fired power plants, which would be an unprecedented federal intervention in the nation’s energy markets. The company said invoking the provision under the Power Act was “the only viable mechanism” to protect the reliability of the nation’s power supply.
Murray told the White House that his key customer, Ohio-based electricity company FirstEnergy Solutions, was at immediate risk of bankruptcy. Without FirstEnergy’s plants burning his coal, Murray said his own company would be forced into “immediate bankruptcy,” triggering the layoffs of more than 6,500 miners. FirstEnergy acknowledged to the AP that bankruptcy of its power-generation business was a possibility.
After a conversation with Trump at a July 25 political rally in Youngstown, Ohio, Murray wrote, the president told Perry three times, “I want this done.” Trump also directed the emergency order be given during an Aug. 3 conversation in Huntington, he said.
“As stated, disastrous consequences for President Trump, our electric power grid reliability and tens of thousands of coal miners will result if this is not immediately done,” he wrote.
Murray’s claims raise the possibility that Trump was warned against the move by his advisers – some of whom are known to be more cautious – or that he simply made assurances to Murray to avoid immediate confrontation. The people who worked on the decision most directly were Perry, Michael Catanzaro, who works under National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn as the top White House energy adviser, and Perry’s chief of staff, Brian McCormack, U.S. officials told the AP. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal policy considerations by name.
Murray and his company have been impassioned supporters of Trump, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign and inauguration, hosting fundraisers and embracing him as the rescuer of the Appalachian coal industry. The friendliness has been mutual: When Trump repealed an Obama administration regulation barring coal companies from dumping mine waste into streams, Murray and his sons were invited for the signing.
The Energy Department has already informed Murray it will not invoke the law, an official with knowledge of the decision told the AP.
Coal has become an increasingly unattractive fuel for U.S. electricity companies, which have been retiring old boilers at a record pace. At least two dozen big coal-fired plants are scheduled to shut down in coming months as utilities transition to new steam turbines fueled by cleaner-burning natural gas made more abundant in recent years by new drilling technologies.
Trump, who rejects the consensus of scientists that burning fossil fuels is causing global warming, has made reversing the coal industry’s decline a cornerstone of his administration’s energy and environmental policies. Since taking office, he announced that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris climate accord, and he has moved to block or delay Obama-era regulations seeking to limit carbon emissions.
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