Front Groups

American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity

American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) was a coal-industry trade association working to increase the longevity of the coal industry. The group is now called America’s Power.

ACCCE Involvement in American Legislative Exchange Council

ACCCE had been a sponsor of American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) since at least 2011. The organization sponsored the following meetings according to documentation from Center for Media and Democracy’s Sourcewatch profile on American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity:

  • “Chairman” level sponsor, 2011 Annual Conference – $50,000
  • “Chairman” level sponsor, 2013 Summer Meeting – $50,000
  • “Chairman” level sponsor, 2013 Annual Conference – $50,000
  • “Director” level sponsor, 2014 Annual Conference – $Unknown
ACCCE was selected as ALEC’s “Private Sector Member of the Year” in 2013.

Reports on Proposed EPA Power Plant and Clean Air Rules

ACCCE was one of the first organizations that immediately filed a petition for review when EPA published the Clean Power Plan in 2015. ACCCE is also a member of the Utility Air Regulatory Group (UARG), which is suing the EPA over the Clean Power Plan as well.

Besides litigation, ACCCE commissioned a report from an economic research firm, National Economic Research Associates, Inc (NERA), that claimed the clean air regulations proposed by President Barack Obama’s administration would cost utilities $17.8 billion per year and have serious impacts on electricity rates. Dr. Laurie T. Johnson, chief economist of the Natural Resources Defense Council pursued a review of the NERA study and concluded, “The report makes assumptions that artificially inflate costs, and displays a level of (non)transparency so egregious it would never pass a peer-review process.” The ACCCE report also ignored clean energy and energy efficiency as two key compliance options for polluters to meet the Clean Power Plan standards and inflated the cost of energy efficiency solutions.

ACCCE Actions Around 2008 Presidential Election

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity waged a multi-million dollar campaign to impact the 2008 elections. The organization spent $2 million at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions to position the phrase “clean coal” and in the end, had every major candidate for President supporting supposed “clean coal technologies” including President Barack Obama.

Membership

The members of American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity include (among others), as of April 2016:

  • Alliance Resource Partners, L.P.
  • Alpha Natural Resources (filed for bankruptcy protection on August 3, 2015)
  • American Electric Power
  • BNSF Railway (a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway)
  • Caterpillar
  • Coal Utilization Research Council
  • CSX
  • Murray Energy Corporation
  • Natural Resource Partners
  • Norfolk Southern
  • Oglethorpe Power Cooperative
  • Peabody Energy (filed for bankruptcy protection on April 13, 2016)
  • Southern Company
  • Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc.
  • Troutman Sanders
  • Union Pacific
  • Western Fuels Association