President Donald Trump’s bid to control independent agencies could radically alter how nuclear projects are licensed, putting speed above safety, energy experts warn.
Trump’s executive order, signed last week, asserts White House control over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as well as other agencies that Congress created to act independently from the president. The move — combined with Trump’s previous comments bemoaning nuclear overregulation — has some experts worried that the White House will force quicker approvals for advanced reactors or allow industry to set safety standards.
“An independent regulator is free from industry and political influence. Trump’s executive order flies in the face of this basic principle,” Allison Macfarlane, an NRC Chair under President Barack Obama, wrote in a blog post for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. “This essentially means subordinating regulators to the president.”
Trump’s executive order is the president’s latest effort to consolidate executive authority and is sure to draw significant court challenges. It aims to erase the longstanding autonomy of numerous independent agencies, from the Federal Energy Regulatory Agency to the Federal Reserve.
