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« Former Perry Adviser Is FirstEnergy’s Secret Weapon in U.S. Bailout | Main | Competition drives nuclear industry to look for millions in subsidies »
Monday
May282018

AP: "New swamp: Ex-Perry adviser lobbies for energy firm bailout"

As reported by the Associated Press.

President Trump's and Energy Secretary Rick Perry's keen interest in doing legal -- or not so legal -- acrobatics, to accommodate FirstEnergy's bailout request comes into crystal clear focus, once the role of lobbyist Jeff Miller is revealed.

Miller ran Perry's failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination. He's been paid $330,000 in just the past year, to lobby his former boss (and longtime close friend) Rick Perry, as well as Donald J. Trump himself at a private dinner.

If approved by the Trump administration, FirstEnergy's request for an emergency bailout -- under an obscure section of the Federal Power Act usually reserved for wartime emergencies and natural disasters -- could cost the public $8 billion per year, to prop up 80 coal and nuclear power plants in the PJM grid, a 13 state region that includes Washington, D.C.

The article quotes Dick Munson from Environmental Defense Fund, and Tim Judson from Nuclear Information and Resource Service.