It remains to be seen what actions Mr. Perry will recommend, but many of the proposals being floated within the Trump administration, according to a leaked internal memo, would involve drastic government intervention in America’s energy markets.

Under one proposal outlined in the memo, which was reported by Bloomberg, the Department of Energy would order grid operators to buy electricity from struggling coal and nuclear plants for two years, using emergency authority that is normally reserved for exceptional crises like natural disasters.

That idea triggered immediate blowback from a broad alliance of energy companies, consumer groups and environmentalists. On Friday, oil and gas trade groups joined with wind and solar organizations in a joint statement condemning the plan, saying that it was “legally indefensible” and would force consumers to pay more for electricity.

In her statement, Ms. Sanders said that the ongoing retirement of coal and nuclear plants, which are being pushed out of competitive electricity markets by a glut of natural gas and renewable power, were “leading to a rapid depletion of a critical part of our nation’s energy mix, and impacting the resilience of our power grid.”

Grid operators disputed that. PJM Interconnection, which runs the Mid-Atlantic electric grid serving more than 65 million people, said in a statement that its grid was “more reliable than ever,” and that any federal intervention “would be damaging to the markets and therefore costly to consumers” by raising electricity prices.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3992154&forum_id=2#36171508)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3992154&forum_id=2#36304161)