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Trump Orders ‘Immediate Steps’ to Boost Coal Plants

WHEELING — President Donald Trump said Friday he believes the nation’s coal-fired and nuclear plants are vital to national security, and he directed Energy Secretary Rick Perry to take “immediate steps” to keep them open.

Both Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Rep. David B. McKinley, R-W.Va., have been encouraging Trump to use his power under the Defense Production Act and the Federal Power Act to protect power plants already investing in emissions control.

The Defense Production Act gives the president powers to assure the nation can produce whatever resources are necessary in the time of national need.

The Trump Administration has determined coal-fired are vital to the protection of the nation’s energy grid, according to a statement released Friday by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

“President Trump has directed Secretary of Energy Rick Perry to prepare immediate steps to stop the loss of these resources, and looks forward to his recommendations,” Sanders said.

“President Trump believes in total energy independence and dominance, and that keeping America’s energy grid and infrastructure strong and secure protects our national security, public safety and economy from intentional attacks and natural disasters. Unfortunately, impending retirements of fuel-secure power facilities are leading to a rapid depletion of a critical part of our nation’s energy mix, and impacting the resilience of our power grid.”

Manchin said Friday he is glad Trump is considering his idea to support coal-fired and nuclear plants under the Defense Production Act.

“The security of our homeland is inextricably tied to the security of our energy supply,” he said. “The ability to produce reliable electricity and to recover from disruptions to our grid are critical to ensuring our nation’s security against the various threats facing our nation today — whether those threats be extreme weather events or adversarial foreign actors.

“The Defense Production Act grants the President the authority to ensure that the nation’s domestic industrial base is capable of providing the essential materials and resources needed to defend our nation and protect our sovereignty and it recognizes energy production and critical infrastructure as strategic and crucial to that goal.”

McKinley said the closure of additional power plants will weaken America’s national security.

“With coal and nuclear plants already closing at alarming rates, the reliability of America’s electric grid is at risk,” he said. “From the Polar Vortex to Hurricane Harvey to the growing threat of cyberattacks from foreign enemies, we’ve seen how weather and other external factors can stress our energy supply and threaten our security.

“We’re encouraged by the news that President Trump is considering invoking emergency authority to secure our electric grid, and we call on him to act quickly to protect America’s national security interests.”

Also supporting the Trump administration’s decision was Sen. Shelley Capito, R-W.Va.

“As it has done time and time again over the years, coal proved to be exactly what we needed to power the country, demonstrating its importance in keeping the lights on when other resources were unavailable,” she said. “I am encouraged by the president’s actions to protect our nation from these plant closures and ensure coal power is available to address future weather, market, and cybersecurity challenges. Doing so will be vital to our state’s economy and to our nation’s viability, security, and independence.”

A draft memo urges federal action to “stop the further premature retirements of fuel-secure generation” from coal and nuclear plants that have struggled to compete with natural gas and renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the memo.

Environmental groups decried the support for coal over cleaner energy sources, while energy industry groups warned that it could raise prices. A diverse group of energy industry groups — including oil, natural gas, solar and wind power — condemned the proposal, saying it would raise energy prices and distort markets.

“Unprecedented government intervention in the energy markets to support high-cost generation will hurt customers by taking more money out of their pockets rather than letting people keep more of what they earn,” said Todd Snitchler of the American Petroleum Institute, the top lobbying group for the oil and gas industry.

“Orderly power plant retirements do not constitute an emergency for our electric grid,” said Amy Farrell, vice president of the American Wind Energy Association. Farrell called the draft plan “a misapplication of emergency powers” and said, “There’s certainly no credible justification to force American taxpayers to bailout uneconomic power plants.”

But Robert Murray, chairman and CEO of Murray Energy Corp., the nation’s largest privately owned coal company, hailed the White House announcement.

Murray has been seeking emergency action to boost his industry since last year and has met with Trump to argue that federal help was needed to avert thousands of layoffs and maintain the reliability of the electric grid up and down the East Coast.

“We support all efforts to ensure the security of our nation’s electric power supply, which is critical to the reliability of our electric power grids, to low-cost electricity and to our national defense,” Murray said Friday in a statement.

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