The Trump administration is using Hurricane Maria as an excuse to subsidize the coal industry
With three of the five FERC seats currently filled, two of the commissioners have already gone public with their skepticism. Robert Powelson, a Trump appointee confirmed in August, has said that “the moment we put our thumbs on the scale is the moment we bastardize the process.” An Obama FERC appointee didn’t think the 60-day deadline was possible. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves because no decision has been made to put that into law,” Cheryl LaFleur told Utility Dive, “but if you did, it would require quite a lot of articulation of how it would work.” They are joined by a group of eight former FERC commissioners, and oil and gas industry and renewables representatives who strongly oppose the rule. The libertarian R Street Institute has called it a “political monster.”
