The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has voted against a plan by Energy Secretary Rick Perry that would use Nuclear and coal power plants as resilience plants in case of power shortages. However, the FERC says there is plenty of excess power in the U.S. grid and no need for his plan.

Trump-appointed regulators reject plan to rescue coal and nuclear plants

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday unanimously rejected a proposal by Energy Secretary Rick Perry that would have propped up nuclear and coal power struggling in competitive electricity markets. The independent five-member commission includes four people appointed by President Trump, three of them Republicans.

From article, (The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday unanimously rejected a proposal by Energy Secretary Rick Perry that would have propped up nuclear and coal power plants struggling in competitive electricity markets.

The independent five-member commission includes four people appointed by President Trump, three of them Republicans. Its decision is binding.

 The FERC said that while it had not used the term “resilience,”  it had pursued policies that would “ensure the uninterrupted supply of electricity in the face of fuel disruptions or extreme weather threats.”

Perry issued a statement saying that “as intended, my proposal initiated a national debate on the resiliency of our electric system.”

But most analysts saw the decision as a setback for the administration.

“This outright rejection of subsidies for coal and nuclear shows that Commissioners of both parties have little interest in manipulating electricity markets in favor of any fuel source,” said Paul Bledsoe, a former consultant at the Obama-era Energy Department, now a lecturer at American University’s Center for Environmental Policy.

“The law and common sense prevailed over special interests today,” John Moore, director of the Sustainable FERC Project Coalition, said in a statement. “The FERC correctly found that the Department of Energy’s proposal violated the basic requirements of the Federal Power Act. Secretary Perry’s plan would have subsidized coal and nuclear plants with a 90-day fuel supply yet Perry never explained why those plants were inherently more reliable or resilient.”

Although the FERC could issue a new order after submissions by regional grid operators, the language in the current order suggested it would stand by the trend toward free competitive electricity markets.

“This is really FERC saying that any change we make to the grid is going to be grounded in fact,” Greg Wetstone, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy, said in an interview. “This is shifting to a real-world process based on what’s actually happening to the nation’s grid, and that’s great news for renewable energy.”

Perry had argued that coal and nuclear power plants would fare better in extreme weather conditions such as the polar vortex that gripped large parts of the nation just four years ago. Yet opponents of Perry’s plan said that the current bout of extreme cold undercut Perry’s argument as regional grids had excess power on hand and many power plants switched from natural gas to oil largely because of cheaper prices. One of the few major outages was the result of a failed transmission line that took a New England nuclear plant offline.)