The Trump administration is planning to issue new emergency orders to prevent aging fossil fuel power plants from retiring, ratcheting up the federal government’s intervention into power markets, according to two people with direct knowledge of the efforts.
The Energy Department has used those orders already this year to ensure adequate power generating capacity remains available to meet rising demand. But critics say requiring older, costly coal-powered electricity generation plants to keep operating even if they are unprofitable drives up consumers’ utility bills.
The White House is concerned the retirement of any power plant able to produce round-the-clock “baseload” power would harm President Donald Trump’s economic goals, which include lowering energy prices and building new data centers for artificial intelligence, these people said.
The Energy Department and White House National Energy Dominance Council are currently crafting the criteria that will guide how DOE uses emergency authorities that issue the must-run orders, predominantly for coal-fired power plants, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to share details about still-fluid policy deliberations. That strategy would expand the use of emergency authorities under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act to prevent such closures.
