Trump appointees scuttled plan to save, modernize power system
Friday, August 21, 2020
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Renewable energy development in the California desert, Tom Brewster
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Documents show that in 2018 the Trump administration prevented federal laboratory research from seeing the light of day. That research could have modernized the power grid, reduced reliance on coal, and saved consumers billions of dollars.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is one of the country's premier energy research labs. In 2018, the results of the lab's 'Seams' study was presented to experts and policy makers. The study found that uniting America's power grids, which are almost completely divided by the Rocky Mountains, would create a more reliable, sustainable, and affordable power system by allowing massive energy flows across the country and taking advantage of renewable sources. It was research billed as a 'trillion-dollar economic event.'
But that was before significant political blowback from the most senior levels of the Department of Energy (DOE), following an alert email from a then-deputy assistant secretary in DOE's Office of Electricity who happened to be at the presentation. NREL swiftly grounded the project's researchers and prohibited them from presenting the results or discussing the study outside the lab. The study, a $1.6 million endeavor, was yanked from NREL's website and YouTube channel, and academic articles on the findings remain blocked.
The entire situation is an example of the deep politicization of DOE and national labs under the Trump administration, which campaigned on promises of revitalizing the coal industry and has given continuous handouts to the fossil fuel industry under the watch of ex-oil lobbyist Interior Secretary Bernhardt. As other countries are racing ahead with grid technology advancements, the United States remains stagnant and about to be left behind.
Calls to oust BLM head increase
William Perry Pendley has been at the head of the Bureau of Land Management without Senate confirmation for months, far longer than allowed by the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. Although recently nominated for the position by the White House, his nomination was pulled after it became clear that he would not be approved due to his history of racism and anti-public lands extremism.
However, Interior Secretary Bernhardt intends to keep him at the top of the agency. It was recently discovered that Pendley himself signed the document that now keeps him in power. Following this revelation, Montana Governor Steve Bullock, conservation groups, and an outdoors group composed of hunters and anglers have ratcheted up their calls for Pendley to be removed.
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Trump appointees scuttled plan to save, modernize power system
The Atlantic
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California's week from hell: wildfires, smog, lightning storms, fire tornadoes, power outages, and heat records
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Trump on California wildfires: "You got to get rid of the leaves." Experts disagree.
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Outdoors group, conservationists, governor press to oust BLM head
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Climate change and warmer summers may be shrinking Alaska salmon and filling Colorado lakes with toxic algae
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 California has a really flammable ecosystem. People are living in flammable places, providing ignition, starting the wildfires against a backdrop of a warming climate that is making wildfires worse.”
—Jennifer Balch, University of Colorado fire scientist, WFMJ |
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