Press Releases

Rep. Don Beyer today issued the following statement on the Trump Administration’s directive to the Department of Energy to order grid operators to purchase power from coal and nuclear power plants, without credible justification for such an act:

“Today Donald Trump is ginning up a fake grid emergency to bail out donors in the coal industry, while ignoring a real grid emergency that has killed thousands of Americans in Puerto Rico.

Trump’s directive is blatantly corrupt. Coal industry executives like Robert Murray were a major source of donations to the Trump Campaign. Murray was also a leader of the effort to get a federal bailout for his failing industry, and was rewarded today for his investment in Trump.

To justify this move, the White House is citing authority under the Federal Power Act and the Defense Production Act which require regulations of this kind to be justified by a national security emergency. Grid operators and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission officials have indicated that no such emergency exists.

Meanwhile there is a genuine grid emergency in the United States which resulted in thousands of American lives lost in Puerto Rico. Trump has yet to say one word about the death toll in Puerto Rico since it was revealed that as many as 4,600 may have been killed there in the wake of Hurricane Maria’s devastation, a significantly higher death toll than Hurricane Katrina. Many who died there suffered from lack of medical care because of ongoing power outages.

Trump’s announcement today says very clearly that he cares more about helping wealthy donors and coal executives than he does the suffering people of Puerto Rico, thousands of whom still lack power eight months after Hurricane Maria.”

Rep. Beyer is the Vice-Ranking Member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, which recently held an oversight hearing with Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, during which Perry and other Energy Department officials faced questioning about the possibility of an order from the White House to prop up the coal industry. Beyer is also a Member of the Natural Resources Committee, which holds jurisdiction over matters related to Puerto Rico.