‘Clean coal’ group downsizing amid industry struggles
A leading “clean coal” lobbying shop is cutting half its staff and reorganizing to reflect the U.S. coal industry’s market losses and the industry’s continued financial struggles.
The 22-year-old American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity will lay off its chief of staff and also plans to eliminate several middle-management positions. The nonprofit is also seeking to get out of its lease for its downtown Washington office.
“Like many of our members, we are facing tough times that necessitate tough decisions on how best to effectively operate,” the group’s CEO, Michael Duncan, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement Monday morning to POLITICO.
Duncan will retain his job at ACCCE, which will see its staff shrink to about eight “senior leaders.”
“While leaner, this team will continue to execute strategic advocacy efforts ensuring that affordable, reliable coal-based electricity supplies America’s power for generations to come,” Duncan said. The most senior position to be eliminated is ACCCE chief of staff Robert Paduchik, who will leave at the end of the year.
ACCCE’s shift is the latest sign of coal’s troubles. Once the source of more than half of the country’s electricity generation, it has faced pressure on its bottom line largely from low cost natural gas and tough new air pollution and climate change rules.
Those market forces have played a big role in its lobbying efforts, which peaked during a national advertising blitz in the 2008 presidential campaign when both party’s nominees — Barack Obama and John McCain — supported measures to boost “clean coal” technologies.
Membership in ACCCE during its heyday included some of the country’s largest electric utility companies, as well as coal producers and railroads. But several of those power suppliers, including MidAmerican, DTE, Duke and First Energy, have dropped out of the group. And while Southern Company and American Electric Power still have memberships, its roster now is mostly made up of coal and railroad companies that have struggled with slumping stock share prices, bankruptcies and other financial pressure.