Three major green energy trade groups have gone public with their concerns about a study that Energy Secretary Rick Perry initiated in mid-April, asking for a more "public process" and the opportunity to provide input as the study is under way, Axios reported Monday.
Perry's stated reason for the 60-day study maintained there was "notable concern about how certain policies are affecting, and potentially putting at risk, energy security and reliability."
The study is designed to provide the administration of President Donald Trump with information in making policy decisions.
Advanced Energy Economy, the American Wind Energy Association and the Solar Energy Industries Association wrote a letter to Perry expressing their concerns. The trade groups maintained their industries were not the cause of the decline of coal and nuclear plants, instead pointing to "numerous studies" indicating "low natural gas prices and stagnant load growth" were the cause. ht
According to Axios, green energy advocates fear the study could prompt "rolling back federal support, and even spur moves against state-level policies that bolster those energy techs."
Seven Democratic senators are also concerned and wrote a letter to Perry, calling the study a "thinly-disguised attempt to promote less economic electric generation technologies, such as coal and nuclear, at the expense of cost-competitive wind and solar power."
In addition, the senators took issue with economist Travis Fisher, who was named to lead the study, pointing to his background at the conservative Institute for Energy Research, which has ties to the fossil fuel industry.
They also wrote that they found the study "mystifying" in light of renewable energy policies Perry initiated as governor of Texas.
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