Update 2:43 pm: This afternoon White House Secretary Sarah Sanders said that President Trump told Energy Secretary Rick Perry to “prepare immediate steps” to prevent coal plants from early closure.
Original Story 9:10am: In a draft memo to be circulated on Friday, the Department of Energy (DOE) argues in favor of using a wartime rule called the Defense Production Act to bail out failing coal and nuclear plants, according to Bloomberg, which obtained a copy of the memo.
The memo suggests that the Energy Department could force grid operators to buy power or electric generation capacity from a list of pre-determined power plants for two years, “to forestall any future actions toward retirement, decommissioning or deactivation.”
During that time, the DOE would conduct a study of vulnerabilities in the US power grid system. The justification for using the Defense Production Act would be that keeping unprofitable power plants running is a matter of national security until the two-year vulnerability study is complete.
The memo allegedly wrote that “Too many of these fuel-secure plants have retired prematurely and many more have recently announced retirement.” According to Bloomberg, the memo added that these coal and nuclear plants are being replaced by natural gas and renewable power generation that is not secure or resilient.
Such a statement has been contradicted by several power grid operators, including PJM, one of the largest independent system operators in the country. The recent “bomb cyclone” system of extremely cold weather in the Northeast this winter showed off that the grid could operate well despite coal retirements.