This information came from an excellent source of information and advocacy, Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). They — at www.nirs.org — and another excellent non-profit organization, Beyond Nuclear — at www.beyondnuclear.org — reliably provide information and advocacy to stop nuclear power. Beyond Nuclear also works to abolish nuclear weapons.
NIRS reported that on June 1, 2018, Trump announced what NIRS described as:
“the most extreme action on nuclear power we have ever seen: issuing an order to prevent any nuclear reactors and coal plants from closing in the coming years, and forcing Americans to pay power companies whatever it costs to keep churning out radioactive waste and climate pollution for years to come.”
In 2017 Trump had proposed something similar, but less extreme, but NIRS mobilized tens of thousands of people to oppose it, so the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which is usually a rubber-stamp for the industry, stopped it. This was highly unusual for FERC to do! Public pressure worked!
Now in mid-2018 Trump is pushing for an even bigger bailout for the coal and nuclear industries. Trump plans to invoke “NATIONAL SECURITY” as the reason to keep coal and nuclear plants operating!
He plans to declare that closing them would be a threat to U.S. national security. NIRS reported that he “is cooking up a plan to use wartime and emergency powers to protect nuclear power from being overtaken by solar and wind.”
NIRS reports that laws passed decades ago “give the President emergency powers over energy supplies and manufacturing,” but Trump is falsely claiming that Section 205c of the Federal Power Act and Section 101 of the Defense Production Act give him the powers to keep coal and nuclear plants operating because we would face a “national emergency” and jeopardize “national security” if they were to be replaced by solar and wind.
Basically, this means that Trump wants to declare martial law over electricity!
He wants to prevent electric companies from following through with their plans to replace coal and nuclear plants with cleaner, safer, cheaper renewable energy!