Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts asked questions Friday about former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s lobbying of the Department of Energy, by which be sought to gain billions of dollars in financial assistance for a nuclear power plant on behalf of a Trump donor.
“The revelation raises disturbing questions about the integrity of the Department of Energy’s loan approval process for funding nuclear power plant construction,” the Massachusetts senator wrote in a letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Thursday night.
Markey, who chairs the Senate climate change task force, wants Perry to investigate a report in the Wall Street Journal that Trump donor Franklin L. Haney agreed to pay Cohen $10 million to assist in gaining government funding to finish construction of the delayed Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant in Alabama.
Markey points out that Cohen began the lobbying job in early April when he was still Trump’s personal attorney. Shortly thereafter, Cohen’s home, office, and hotel room were raided by the FBI, and he is under criminal investigation, including for illegal lobbying.
Cohen was also given a retainer payment for each month of lobbying on top of the $10 million “success fee” for gaining final approval of a $5 billion loan guarantee from the Energy Department. Cohen had made calls in the spring to the Energy Department to see if there was any way to speed up the approval process.
The agreement between Haney and Cohen was reportedly rescinded, but Markey says the issue warrants further investigation to examine the integrity of the loan guarantee program that Perry oversees.
“Whatever the legal and ethical implications of the so-called ‘success fee’ arrangement between Mr. Haney and Mr. Cohen, serious questions must be answered about the DOE loan approval process for nuclear power plants,” Markey writes.
Markey also wants Perry to explain when he became aware that Mr. Cohen contacted the Energy Department about the Bellefonte plant application. He also wants Perry to confirm reporting that he and Cohen had not communicated about Bellefonte.
Haney’s company bought the plant from the Tennessee Valley Authority after a series of delays kept construction of the plant from being completed for decades. The power plant is one of a handful of new nuclear power plants under construction in the U.S., many of which are facing financial hurdles that are delaying completion.
A company press release says the Haney family has a combined development portfolio of more than $10 billion. It explains that the Washington metropolitan area represents the Haney family’s leading marketplace, including the multibillion dollar Dulles Greenway Toll Road in suburban Virginia and the Portals Office Complex in downtown Washington.
