As Trump Takes Over, Who Wields Power?
What do we know as of February 1 about key Trump appointees responsible for administering White House policies affecting the power generation industry? Not much.
As the Trump administration settles in, how his teams at energy and environment agencies will implement his policy agenda remains unclear, as does his agenda. At the end of January, none of the Trump nominees for key energy and environment jobs had won Senate confirmation. The Senate Environment and Natural Resources committee approved former Texas Governor Rick Perry to be Department of Energy (DOE) secretary, by a bipartisan vote of 16–7 (the committee consists of 12 Republicans and 11 Democrats). Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) got the nod to head the Interior Department by a 16–6 vote. Neither nomination has been scheduled for full Senate consideration.
Rick Perry, a former governor of Texas, is Trump’s pick as energy secretary.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee the same day punted on the nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to be Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief, putting the vote off to the next day, February 1.…