Author Of DOE Grid Study Describes Being Pressured To Fault Regulations

"When Energy Secretary Rick Perry set out this year to prove that Obama-era regulations were killing coal plants and undermining grid reliability, he turned to a veteran energy consultant from his home state of Texas to write the report.

Alison Silverstein was known to be proficient in energy efficiency and the effects of renewables, and she had worked in Washington as a senior advisor to a George W. Bush appointee. When Perry brought Silverstein back to Washington in May, she reviewed data for several weeks and began to outline the "Staff Report on Electricity Markets and Reliability." On Friday in Chicago, she described what happened when her supervisors reviewed her work:

"I got to DOE, and I set up a storyboard, and I started writing. And they called me in one day and they said, 'There’s nothing in here about regulation, the horrible effects of regulation on all of these plants.'

Jeff McMahon reports for Forbes November 12, 2017.