Months into the Korean War, President Harry Truman capped wages and imposed price controls on the steel industry, seizing authority under a newly passed law to take action in the name of national defense.
Now, more than a half century later, Trump administration officials are considering using the same statute to keep struggling coal and nuclear power plants online, according to four people familiar with the discussions who asked for anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
Under the approach, the administration would invoke sweeping authority in the 68-year-old Defense Production Act, which allows the president to effectively nationalize private industry to ensure the U.S. has resources that could be needed amid a war or after a disaster.
Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, urged President Donald Trump to employ the statute in a letter Wednesday.
"If you don’t have the grid filled with the power that’s needed 24/7, you’re in trouble," he said in an interview. It’s "an emergency national concern and for the national defense of our country."
It was previously invoked in 2001 to keep natural gas flowing to California utilities to avoid electrical blackouts.
The Defense Department, for example, bought semiconductor manufacturing equipment so companies could churn out radiation-hardened microelectronics used by the military -- such a niche market that businesses might not have made the investment on their own. It has also been deployed to fund research and procurement projects in lithium ion batteries, lightweight ammunition and other technologies.
The government also invoked the statute to force telecommunication companies to divulge confidential information about their networks in 2011. And Trump told Congress last June he would use the law to buttress the aerospace industry and prevent shortfalls in the production of a vaccine for military use.
TL;DR: Private/corporate-owned renewable and natural gas power plants may have to compete against state-owned (or state-backed) coal and nuclear power plants. RIP my $NEP, $PEGI, $BAM and $RDS (they're betting on natural gas) investments, and so much for the idea of looking at $NYLD after its acquisition by Global Infrastructure Partners.
EDIT:
Congress would have little say in the matter. The administration has to notify lawmakers when the authority is invoked but doesn’t need their approval.
Submitted April 20, 2018 at 09:24AM by COMPUTER1313 https://ift.tt/2JctCW5
