The United States Presidential Administration considering elaborating a new plan to subsidise coal-fired and nuclear plants, a month after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) terminated an earlier proposal (January 2018) from the US Department of Energy (DoE) aimed at subsidising coal-fired and nuclear plants in some parts of the United States. The administration, which estimates that the premature closure of coal-fired power plants puts the domestic power grid at risk, will look for ways to extend the operating life of money-losing nuclear and coal-fired power plants facing competition from cheaper renewable energy or gas-fired facilities.
The January 2018 proposal planned to provide short-term support for struggling power plants and included in particular cost recovery for US plants with 90 days of fuel supplies on site (mainly coal-fired and nuclear power plants). The FERC terminated the proposal, arguing that there is no evidence that planned retirements of coal-powered plants pose a threat to the domestic electric grid's reliability. In addition, this support would have distorted prices in competitive power markets.
In April 2018, the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that federal subsidies for many energy categories have nearly halved between 2013 and 2016, from US$29.3bn to US$15bn.
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