Bloomberg reports that critics, including producers, say payments would skew market as interim agency head rushes to implement rules before term ends:

“President Donald Trump is on the verge of subsidizing coal plants that would otherwise be driven out of business by cheaper, cleaner natural gas.

“A plan that would leave consumers footing a potential multibillion-dollar bill is expected Dec. 11, and Trump couldn’t have chosen a more enthusiastic person to get it done: Neil Chatterjee, a Republican from coal country, who has spent years brokering seemingly impossible deals for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Now he’s cutting the biggest deal of his career -- and he’s running out of time to do it. [In his] role as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency that oversees U.S. power markets…”

The story included AEE’s perspective:

“This is entirely unprecedented,” said Malcolm Woolf, head of government affairs at the clean-energy firm Advanced Energy Economy. “It’s issuing an emergency lifeline for coal that’s paid for by downstream customers.”

See the entire Bloomberg Politics news story here.