Tag: Department of Energy

Releasing this picture got a Department of Energy photographer fired. He doesn’t regret it.

The following article by Mark Hand was posted on the ThinkProgress website January 22, 2018:

Simon Edelman leaked a photo of coal baron Robert Murray’s “action plan.”

MURRAY ENERGY CEO ROBERT MURRAY PRESENTED ENERGY SECRETARY RICK PERRY WITH AN ACTION PLAN AT A MARCH 29, 2017 MEETING AT DOE HEADQUARTERS IN WASHINGTON. CREDIT: SIMON EDELMAN

A Department of Energy photographer who was fired after releasing photos he took of a meeting between Energy Secretary Rick Perry and a prominent coal executive wants federal authorities to open a criminal investigation into what he calls “public corruption” between Perry and the industry official.

At the meeting, photographer Simon Edelman said Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray asked Perry for policy changes that would directly benefit his coal company and the executive’s personal financial position. The reason to release the photos “was to show the evidence of corruption that was taking place,” Edelman told ThinkProgress. Continue reading “Releasing this picture got a Department of Energy photographer fired. He doesn’t regret it.”

Trump administration plan to prop up coal and nuclear markets rejected by regulators

The following article by Evan Halper was posted on the Los Angeles Times website January 8, 2018:

Secretary Rick Perry

Trump administration plan to force utilities to purchase more coal and nuclear power was rejected Monday by federal regulators, undermining the president’s energy agenda and his promise to revive the coal industry.

The five-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is dominated by Trump appointees, unanimously rejected the proposal. Its members were not persuaded by arguments from Energy Secretary Rick Perry that solar, wind and other forms of renewable power were destabilizing the nation’s power grid and needed to be backstopped with more coal and nuclear power at a considerable cost to consumers. Continue reading “Trump administration plan to prop up coal and nuclear markets rejected by regulators”

How James Inhofe is upending the nation’s energy and environmental policies

The following article by Juliet Ellperin and Brady Dennis was posted on the Washington Post website March 14, 2017:

For more than a decade, Sen. James M. Inhofe has raged against the scientific consensus that humans are fueling climate change, calling it “the greatest hoax” ever perpetrated on Americans. The Oklahoma Republican has blasted the Environmental Protection Agency as an “activist organization” that has unfairly burdened everyone from farmers to fossil-fuel companies.

Now the man critics once dismissed as a political outlier has an unprecedented opportunity to shape the nation’s energy and ­environmental policies. And he has helped populate the upper ranks of the agency he has derided with several of his closest confidants. Continue reading “How James Inhofe is upending the nation’s energy and environmental policies”