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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRick Perrys Anti-Market Plan to Help Coal
Lost in all the attention to the Trump administrations effort to scuttle President Barack Obamas clean power plan is its attempt to prop up the struggling coal industry by doing something very un-Republican subsidizing it.
Last month, Rick Perry, the secretary of energy, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission the independent agency that regulates electricity markets to adopt a new rule to pay certain coal and nuclear plants more than they would otherwise earn in a competitive market. In essence, consumers would pay these plants a premium for electricity that competitors could produce, and are already producing, more cheaply.
Mr. Perrys plan is premised on two unfounded claims: First, it assumes that coal and nuclear power plants, because they can stockpile fuel on site, are uniquely able to enhance the reliability and resiliency of the electric power grid, especially in times of fuel supply disruptions. Second, it assumes that those plants are being driven out of business by unfair subsidies to renewable-energy producers, as Mr. Perry has repeatedly claimed or implied.
But a Department of Energy study conducted under Mr. Perrys direction concluded otherwise. In fact, the retirements of aging coal and nuclear plants, the study showed, have not compromised reliability, the term used to describe the grids ability to keep the lights on under normal conditions. While the grid might need more bolstering in the future, reliability is adequate today despite the retirement of 11 percent of the generating capacity available in 2002, as significant additions from natural gas, wind, and solar have come online since then, the report noted.
Last month, Rick Perry, the secretary of energy, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission the independent agency that regulates electricity markets to adopt a new rule to pay certain coal and nuclear plants more than they would otherwise earn in a competitive market. In essence, consumers would pay these plants a premium for electricity that competitors could produce, and are already producing, more cheaply.
Mr. Perrys plan is premised on two unfounded claims: First, it assumes that coal and nuclear power plants, because they can stockpile fuel on site, are uniquely able to enhance the reliability and resiliency of the electric power grid, especially in times of fuel supply disruptions. Second, it assumes that those plants are being driven out of business by unfair subsidies to renewable-energy producers, as Mr. Perry has repeatedly claimed or implied.
But a Department of Energy study conducted under Mr. Perrys direction concluded otherwise. In fact, the retirements of aging coal and nuclear plants, the study showed, have not compromised reliability, the term used to describe the grids ability to keep the lights on under normal conditions. While the grid might need more bolstering in the future, reliability is adequate today despite the retirement of 11 percent of the generating capacity available in 2002, as significant additions from natural gas, wind, and solar have come online since then, the report noted.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/25/opinion/rick-perry-coal-antimarket.html
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Rick Perrys Anti-Market Plan to Help Coal (Original Post)
spanone
Oct 2017
OP
doc03
(35,293 posts)1. Ask one of those coal advocates why they don't heat their house with coal?
Remember those days, the snow was always gray, we had soot everywhere in the house, my mother had to wash the curtains
every couple weeks.
spanone
(135,781 posts)2. this is just so absurd.