A fact sheet the Energy Department released warning of grid outages due a “radical green agenda” appears to have come from a Trump political appointee who also worked at the Interior Department and had a hand in ending all diversity, equity and inclusion programs there.
The signature of Charlie Dankert, a staffer at DOE, is connected to a fact sheet the agency released last week that summarized an agency report that warns the U.S. will lose the race for leadership in artificial intelligence technology unless it halts the closure of older coal- and gas-fired power plants and speeds construction of new ones.
The report is widely viewed as groundwork for the White House to order coal and gas plants slated for closure to run for longer. Dankert’s signature, which can be seen in the fact sheet’s metadata, indicates political appointees at DOE are crafting a narrative meant to bolster the life of coal-fired power plants while offering up a stark warning about grid reliability.
But a spokesperson for DOE pushed back on any assertion Dankert authored the document.
