A proposal by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to provide increased subsidies to coal and nuclear plants has been condemned by cross-party group of former federal regulators. The DOE has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking setting out a plan to provide cost recovery for power plants with a 90-day fuel supply. In its proposal, the DOE says that it will “encourage utilities to purchase more fuel-efficient natural gas or coal-fired generation in order to reduce their carbon footprints.”
A proposal by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to provide increased subsidies to coal and nuclear plants has been condemned by cross-party group of former federal regulators. The DOE has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking setting out a plan to provide cost recovery for power plants with a 90-day fuel supply. It has prompted five former chairs of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to write to the current regulators warning it would "fundamentally distort" the market and destroy investor confidence in the sector.