Tag: Trump Energy Department

Senate confirms Brouillette to succeed Perry as Energy secretary

Republican donor and former business executive will take over one of the most technically complicated departments in the federal bureaucracy

The Senate voted 70-15 Monday evening to confirm Dan Brouillette to succeed Rick Perry as Energy secretary.

President Donald Trump nominated Brouillette, a long-time Republican donor and former business executive for Ford Motor Co. and USAA who worked at DOE during the George W. Bush administration, after Perry said in October he would step down.

Brouillette, currently the deputy secretary, will take over one of the most technically complicated departments in the federal bureaucracy, where he will be responsible for nuclear waste cleanup, nuclear weapons safety and the country’s 17 national laboratories.

Continue reading here.

Next question for Rick Perry: Will he testify?

Energy Department Secretary Rick Perry’s departure from the Trump administration doesn’t resolve the most pressing question about his role in the Ukraine scandal — whether he will cooperate with House Democrats’ impeachment probe.

Perry, who told President Donald Trump on Thursday he intends to resign, faces a Friday deadline to comply with a House subpoena for information about outreach to Ukraine, which came as the president’s emissaries were pushing Kyiv to launch a corruption investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. House investigators also appear to be edging toward issuing a subpoena for Perry to testify — something he could be freer to do once he’s no longer in the administration.

Perry plans to depart by the end of the year, Trump told reporters Thursday. His confirmation that Perry would leave came two weeks after POLITICO reported that the former Texas governor planned to step down in the coming months, something Perry denied four days later.

View the complete October 17 article by Ben LeFebvre, Anthony Adragna and Zack Colman on the Politico website here.

House Democrats subpoena Rick Perry in impeachment inquiry

The Hill logoHouse Democrats on Thursday subpoenaed Energy Secretary Rick Perry for documentation of his involvement with President Trump‘s efforts to push the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
Perry is the latest Trump administration official to be issued a subpoena as part of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, which is examining the president’s efforts to persuade the Ukrainian government to investigate Biden, a leading Democratic presidential contender.
“Recently, public reports have raised questions about any role you may have played in conveying or reinforcing the President’s stark message to the Ukrainian President,” the chairmen of the three committees leading the House inquiry wrote to Perry.

View the complete October 10 article by Cristina Marcos on The Hill website here.

Rick Perry planning to step down as energy secretary by year end

Washington Post logoEnergy Secretary Rick Perry is planning to step down from his post by the end of the year, according to four individuals briefed on his plans, making him one of about a dozen Cabinet members to leave their post during President Trump’s administration.

Perry probably will return to the private sector, one of these individuals said. All four spoke on the condition of anonymity because no formal announcement has been made.

The former Texas governor, who has touted fossil fuels but also research into alternative energy since taking office, has not enacted the same sweeping policy changes as his counterparts at the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.

View the complete October 3 article by Juliet Eilperin and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Trump administration authorized nuclear energy companies to share technological information with Saudi Arabia

Secretary of Energy Rick Perry behind President Trump at the 2017. Credit: Steve Helber, AP

The Trump administration has kept secret seven authorizations it has issued since November 2017 allowing U.S. nuclear energy companies to share sensitive technological information with Saudi Arabia, even though the kingdom has not yet agreed to anti-proliferation terms required to construct a pair of U.S.-designed civilian nuclear power plants.

The Energy Department and State Department have not only kept the authorizations from the public but also refused to share information about them with congressional committees that have jurisdiction over nuclear proliferation and safety.

The authorizations, issued to at least six companies, cover “Part 810” information, named for a regulatory clause that allows U.S. companies to divulge some design information to compete for contracts with foreign buyers. The regulations for Part 810 technology-sharing provide a list of “generally authorized destinations.” Saudi Arabia is not on the list.

View the complete March 28 article by Steve Mufson on The Washington Post website here.

Subsidizing coal and nuclear power could drive customers off the grid

The following article by Joshua M. Pearce, Professor, Michigan Technological University, was posted on the Conversation website November 14, 2017:

Solar home designed by University of Maryland students for the Department of Energy’s 2017 Solar Decathlon. DOE Solar Decathlon

Within the next month, energy watchers expect the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to act on an order from Energy Secretary Rick Perry that would create new pricing rules for certain power plants that can store fuel on site to support grid resilience. This initiative seeks to protect coal-fired and nuclear power plants that are struggling to compete with cheaper energy sources.

Perry’s proposed rule applies to plants that operate in regions with deregulated power markets, where utilities normally compete to deliver electricity at the lowest price. To qualify, plants would have to keep a 90-day fuel supply on site. Each qualified plant would be allowed to “recover its fully allocated costs.”

In other words, plant owners would be able to charge enough to cover a range of costs, including operating costs, costs of capital and debt, and investor returns. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Neil Chatterjee has stated that the extra money to keep coal and nuclear plants running “would come from customers in that region, who need the reliability.” Continue reading “Subsidizing coal and nuclear power could drive customers off the grid”