FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) -- together with its subsidiaries FirstEnergy Generation and FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company -- announced its bankruptcy last night after years of short-sighted business decisions and executive mismanagement that resisted investing in clean, renewable energy, and its workers. The company now has a serious obligation to protect its workers and their benefits from the bankruptcy process, as well as meet its environmental responsibilities -- particularly if its coal and nuclear power plants are retired or sold.
It may be spring, but Scott Pruitt’s scandals have snowballed into a full blown avalanche. Here’s what we know after this week’s blizzard of bad headlines for the Trump Administration courtesy of Scott Pruitt.
Washington, DC -- Today, Scott Pruitt reportedly formally began the process of rolling back the clean car standards. The clean car standards will limit carbon pollution by 6 billion tons, save consumers $1.7 trillion dollars in fuel costs, and reduce oil consumption by up to 4 million barrels every day.
The Sierra Club sent a letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry today urging him to reject FirstEnergy Solutions’ request for him to illegally use emergency powers to force electricity customers to bail out uneconomic coal and nuclear plants in the PJM electricity market.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- It may be spring, but Scott Pruitt’s scandals continue to snowball, as ABC News reported today that Pruitt worked directly with fossil fuel industry lobbyist Steven Hart to secure living arrangements in a townhouse owned by the same lobbyist’s wife. According to ABC, Pruitt paid for just one room in an otherwise unoccupied townhouse and experts on government ethics are raising questions as to whether this was a fair market transaction. Meanwhile, former White House Ethics Czar Norm Eisen said Pruitt likely secured the property below market value, categorizing the deal as a major ethics violation.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, ABC News reported that for much of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s first year in DC, he lived in the townhouse co-owned by the wife of fossil fuel lobbyist Steven Hart. Hart’s lobbying firm reportedly represents fossil fuel companies pushing “liquid natural gas” -- a dirty fuel that Pruitt has openly advocated for, including on a taxpayer funded trip to Morocco.
FirstEnergy Solutions (FES), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corporation, formally requested that Energy Secretary Rick Perry use an extraordinary emergency order (Section 202c of the Federal Power Act) to force electricity customers to prop up all coal and nuclear plants in the PJM electricity market, something senior staff at DOE have unequivocally said they will not do. PJM, which stretches from the East Coast to the Midwest, has record surplus electric generating capacity and has expressed no immediate reliability concerns.
Today, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced it will begin the process for an offshore drilling lease sale in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Donald Trump fired VA Secretary David Shulkin via tweet following reporting about scandals in Shulkin’s department, including the abuse of taxpayer dollars for luxury travel. Shulkin’s removal leaves far less cover for Scott Pruitt and Ryan Zinke, as they continue to be dogged by scandals, investigations, and negative headlines. Just today, a coalition of environmental groups launched the #BootPruitt campaign to demand the ouster of Pruitt amid the mounting cost to taxpayers of his own luxury travel and the mounting negative effects of his cozy relationship with corporate polluters as he pushes to gut clean air and water standards.
Today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rejected a request from the builder of the fracked gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) for more time to cut trees used by migrating birds and threatened and endangered bat species.