Ernest Moniz Is Back
- Ernest Moniz advisory group will continue his Energy research
- First order of business is a grid study to rival Trump’s
Ernest Moniz, former U.S. secretary of energy, attends the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on May 1, 2017.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/BloombergWhile President Donald Trump’s Energy Department is studying how to save coal plants, veterans from the administration of President Barack Obama’s Energy Department announced a new effort to figure out how to curtail carbon in the U.S. energy system.
Ernest Moniz, who was Obama’s Energy secretary, said Wednesday that there is a “leadership void” under Trump, and his new group would pursue much of the research and analysis that was begun in the federal government under his tenure. Given Trump’s budget proposal to cut energy spending by $3.2 billion, Moniz said this nonprofit, called the Energy Futures Initiative, is necessary.