Republican moderates are pushing back against the White House’s coal strategy, signaling political unease around expanded coal policy

A handful of congressional Republicans are breaking with President Donald Trump and party leadership over their renewed push to boost coal-fired power generation.

They warn that the industry’s long-term struggles can’t be solved by federal funding or executive action — and argue the White House shouldn’t prioritize fossil fuels at the expense of renewables.

“It’s not as easy as it sounds, just putting money into a sector that’s seen the shuttering of coal plants for a host of different reasons,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowksi (R-Alaska), who added that she is a supporter of coal generation.

Indeed, Trump was largely powerless to stop a wave of coal plant retirements during his first four years in the White House, when weak power demand and cheap natural gas undermined his campaign pledge to revive the industry.

On Monday, the administration announced a new suite of initiatives to bolster coal generation, including $625 million for the nation’s coal fleet and new public land sales for coal production purposes.

Those actions, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said, would not just keep coal generation plants online in the short term but support a strong domestic coal industry “for decades.”

Most energy experts disagree. Tony Knutson, a lead coal researcher at the consultancy Wood Mackenzie, said the White House’s actions could allow coal generation to hold on for a longer period but that “a resurrection or a return to a golden age” likely wouldn’t occur.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has been in vocal opposition to some of Trump’s anti-renewable energy policies, also said that the White House’s actions simply weren’t enough to reinvigorate the coal industry.

“If it’s just purely an administration position, then the long-term capital expenditure that may be necessary to have clean coal is probably not going to be there,” Tillis said. “It could take two, three years to actually get investment up to any level of significance for our generation assets.”

‘Coal is really essential’

It’s not just the administration that is boosting coal. Last month, House leaders shepherded the passage of H.R. 3015, the “National Coal Council Reestablishment Act,” that would enshrine in law a national coal council at the Department of Energy.

Several Republicans, however, voted against that bill: Reps. Nicole Malliotakis and Nick LaLota of New York, and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.

Both Malliotakis and LaLota pointed to a different reason as to why they went against their party’s coal priorities: the White House’s continued throttling of wind and solar projects.

“While I support clean coal, my vote was a reflection of my preference for an all-of-the-above energy strategy, including not pulling the plug on offshore wind projects that are already 70 percent complete,” LaLota said, seemingly referencing the Trump administration’s decision to issue a stop-work order on the Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island.

All the Republicans skeptical of the coal push agreed that they were for an “all-of-the-above” strategy and may have been more enthusiastic about the coal initiative if the energy policy of the administration was more technology neutral.

In recent months, the Trump administration has rolled out of a “best-of-the-above” energy policy that prioritizes fossil fuels and baseload energy sources that can provide on-demand power. Many Hill Republicans have fallen in line with the new philosophy.

And despite some pushback, the vast majority of Hill Republicans overwhelmingly support the Trump administration’s coal initiative as a way to effectively bolster coal generation for the long run.

“I think coal is always going to be a factor on the power side, and coal is really essential to steel building in America,” said Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), one of coal’s top champions on Capitol Hill. “I think this helps the coal industry have a nice spot here for decades to come.”

The permitting angle

Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) — founder of the Conservative Climate Caucus when he served in the House — said the best way to solve such disagreement over the effectiveness of the administration’s coal actions would be for Congress to step up and pass a bipartisan permitting reform package.

That way the coal industry and other energy sources could be set up for effective growth without the threat of shifting policies from president to president.

“When we as legislators don’t legislate, then the executive branch does what they want to do, and that could be good or bad depending upon your perspective,” Curtis said. “An agreement in Congress that’s long-lasting, that is what’s best for the coal industry.”

It remains to be seen if Democrats would go along with Curtis’ line of thinking in permitting negotiations. They generally believe that coal generation should be retired over the next few years, due to carbon emission impacts and the declining economics.

“I think there’s a lot of us that have been advocating [for all of the above], but we certainly don’t want to add more coal power plants to the grid,” said Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.). “That’s not the way we should go.”

https://www.eenews.net/articles/republican-moderates-push-back-on-white-house-coal-strategy/