Trump Officials and Lawmakers Participated in Coal Association Board Meeting

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), a trade association and lobbying group representing the coal industry, hosted top officials in the Trump Administration and politicians during its 2018 board meeting, according to an agenda obtained by Documented.

The event featured Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Neil Chatterjee, then-EPA Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Office of Air and Radiation Clint Woods, U.S. Senator Todd Young, U.S. Rep. David McKinley, and Kentucky Public Service Commissioner Talina Mathews.

The agenda was cited in Politico’s Morning Energy, which also highlights other email correspondence obtained by Documented showing that Woods planned to discuss the Trump Administration’s Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule. Backed by the coal industry, the ACE rule repeals the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan, which aimed to reduce emissions from coal-burning power plants.

ACCCE also made headlines recently in revelations first reported by Bloomberg that the group drafted a letter urging the agency to take up the Trump administration’s coal plant bailout proposal, according to emails obtained by the Energy and Policy Institute. The letter was sent to FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee and signed by public service commissioners from Montana, Tennessee, Alabama, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Kentucky.

According to the organization's 2017 tax filing, the ACCCE board includes Alliance Resource Partners’ CEO Joe Craft, Murray Energy’s CEO Bob Murray, and Kemal Williamson of Peabody Energy. The only two major electric utilities left in ACCCE, Southern Company and the American Electric Power, also have executives who serve on the board.

Documented obtained the email correspondence and agenda from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The documents can be viewed here on documentcloud and below:

Photograph by Flickr user Rab.