Donald Trump has wrecked America’s standing in the world by unilaterally removing the nation from the Paris agreement, placed millions at risk from climate change by dumping the Clean Power Plan, buried hundreds of miles of streams and rivers with an executive order to remove limits on dumping waste, and cut short the lives of thousands by requiring utilities to keep more polluting power sources in the mix. And all of it, all of it, helps one man.
A proposal by Energy Secretary Rick Perry to alter the nation's electricity markets would provide a windfall for a small group of companies — most strikingly one owned by coal magnate Bob Murray, a prominent backer of President Donald Trump.
The “reliability” standards being pushed by Perry’s Department of Energy explicitly penalize utilities for using wind or solar power and reward providers who keep aging coal power and nuclear plants up and running. Even natural gas-powered plants aren’t allowed to meet the specifications that were specifically drawn to protect coal.
Perry's plan would force consumers to subsidize ailing coal-fired and nuclear power plants with billions of dollars, in what he calls an effort to ensure that the nation’s power network can withstand threats like terrorist attacks or severe weather. But his narrowly written proposal would mostly affect plants in a stretch of the Midwest and Northeast where Murray's mining company, Murray Energy, is the predominant supplier, according to a POLITICO analysis of Energy Department data.
If Trump’s various sections had worked together to specifically punish someone this clearly, it would likely be against the law. But Trump’s team has assembled a stack of regulations designed to perfectly benefit the person who provided Trump not just with over $200,000 in campaign funds, but all those handy coal miners to serve as props during the campaign. So … it’s all good.
The way in which the regulations have been made to help Murray is like drawing a set of Venn diagrams. The type of mining affected by the executive order Trump signed is a type that Murray practices. The utilities affected by Scott Pruitt killing the Clean Power Plan and Rick Perry announcing the DOE’s new requirements are those where Murray sells his coal.
Perry’s proposal, which needs approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is the Energy secretary's most aggressive step yet toward helping Trump reverse what he has denounced as former President Barack Obama's "war on coal." But while it would stimulate demand for coal, it would also increase power prices for millions of customers.
Perry’s program is actually a War on the Free Market, forcing utilities to burn coal even if it’s more expensive, and even if it raises the bills—and damages the health—of their customers.
It’s also a war on jobs. The two fastest-growing occupations in the nation are wind turbine technician and solar panel installer. By repressing these industries, Trump is killing opportunities for workers in the affected region to benefit a handful of supporters.
Not to mention going directly against what Republicans claim to support.
Republicans often claim to be champions of the free market, ready to fight the distorting power of regulation and eager to shake the invisible hand. But when it comes to energy, the Trump White House is taking an approach that actively alters the market explicitly to generate the outcome it wants. It’s choosing winners and losers in the most deliberate way possible, by selectively removing or weakening some regulations and imposing sweeping new constraints that aren't needed to protect either the environment or the infrastructure. As a result Trump’s team is warping the energy market in a way that hurts everyone, especially the people they're claiming to protect.