Trump bailing out the coal industry creates new and unlikely coalitions
Washington — In his 20 years of promoting renewable energy in Washington, Gregory Wetstone has made common cause with a range of special interest groups: environmentalists, power utilities — even a handful of natural gas producers. But US President Donald Trump’s efforts to bail out the coal industry led Wetstone, the head of the American Council on Renewable Energy, to find a surprising new partner: big oil. Within hours of US energy secretary Rick Perry releasing a proposal to overhaul the country’s power markets to advantage unprofitable coal and nuclear plants, Wetstone was busy pulling together a team of unlikely allies, including solar installers, oil refineries and natural-gas drillers, all of which were worried that the plan would raise electricity costs and undercut their fuel source in the power markets. With uncharacteristic speed for a collection this broad, Wetstone’s renewable energy council joined the American Petroleum Institute and 19 other groups to submit comments...
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