WhoRunsGov

Steve Miller

President of the American Coalition of Clean Coal Electricity (since 2007)

Why He Matters

Miller's group focuses on the role of coal-generated electricity in the U.S. energy mix and lobbies on its behalf on Capitol Hill.

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) is a Virginia group funded by the country's major coal-generated utilities, coal producers and railroads. Miller's organization has spent nearly $40 million on television, radio spots and other outreach efforts to bolster public support for coal and to demonstrate coal's impact on the U.S. economy.

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At a Glance

  • Career History: President and CEO of the Center for Energy and Economic Development (CEED) (1994-N/A); Campaign manager, Kentucky Gov. and LG Brereton Jones (D) Governor; Lt. Governor Jones' Executive Officer.
  • Hometown: Kentucky
  • Alma Mater: University of Kentucky; University of Kentucky Law School
  • Office: 333 John Carlyle Street, Suite 530Alexandria, Va., 22314, (703) 684-6292
  • Web site
 

Path to Power

Previously a campaign manager and executive officer to former Kentucky Gov. Brereton Jones (D) , Miller co-founded the Center for Energy and Economic Development (CEED) in 1992. In 1994, he became the organization's president and CEO. During his time at CEED, he played a lead role in forming Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC), a campaign aimed at increasing awareness of the economic benefits of coal.

In the mid-'90s CEED lobbied against the Kyoto Protocol, which it called "wrong in its science, wrong in its approach, wrong to surrender, wrong for America." Regarding climate change and global climate modeling," Miller said at the time: "Indeed, many scientists maintain that [greenhouse gas] emissions from electric power plants are not contributing significantly to overall warming trends."

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The Issues

After taking on a new name, ACCCE's also changed its stance towards climate-change legislation. It "would support mandatory limits on carbon dioxide as long as legislation met a set of principles that encouraged 'robust utilization of coal.'"

According to its web site, ACCCE supports federal carbon-management legislation and recognizes that a mandatory cap-and-trade program is one option for legislation. But according to the group's web site, the legislation must:

  • "Guarantee, through public-private sector partnerships, aggressive, near- and long-term investments in new, advanced technologies that 1) avoid or reduce carbon dioxide emissions; 2) capture, transport, and safely store carbon dioxide; and 3) use carbon dioxide in beneficial ways, whenever practical.
  • Establish a legal, regulatory and long-term liability framework to safely store carbon dioxide.
  • Promote the deployment to other nations of advanced U.S.-developed technologies to avoid, reduce, capture, transport, and safely store carbon dioxide.
  • Ensure that any mandatory requirements (cap levels, compliance deadlines, etc.) be reasonable and recognize that many of the technologies needed to reduce manmade greenhouse-gas emissions from new or existing [fossil fuels] are not yet commercially available.
  • Protect American consumers and the U.S. economy through effective cost-containment measures. For example, if a cap-and-trade program were to be implemented, it would be essential to have fair and equitable allocation of emission allowances, as well as to establish a ceiling price for carbon that is certain and reasonable.
  • Allow broad use of verifiable actions to offset manmade greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Afford full credit for verifiable early actions that avoid, reduce or capture and store manmade greenhouse gases.
  • Avoid a patchwork of conflicting standards or duplicative programs through the adoption of a uniform federal program.
  • Encompass economy-wide domestic actions and cover all major manmade greenhouse gases
  • Preserve reliability of the electricity generation, transmission and distribution system.
  • Promote energy security and reliability by encouraging maximum utilization of domestic resources to generate electricity.
  • Maintain America's competitiveness in a global economy."
 

The Network

ACCCE Vice President of Communications Joe Lucas has been Miller's colleague for more than a decade. Before the coalition was formed, Lucas was the spokesman for ABEC and worked along with Miller at CEED. He and Miller merged organizations to form ACCCE in 2008.

Lucas has worked in Kentucky and federal mining agencies, and did coal communications for former Clinton Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary.

 

Additional Resources

  1. Marianne Lavelle, Energy Publisher, "Think again about clean coal", May 25, 2009
  2. Press release, ACCCE, "Legislation We Can Support," April 20, 2009
  3. Ari Berman, The Nation, "The Dirt on Clean Coal", March 26, 2009
  4. Marianne Lavelle, Energy Publisher, "Think again about clean coal", May 25, 200
  5. Press release, ACCCE, "ACCCE Statement Regarding Falsified Constituent Contacts Made to Congressional Offices by Bonner and Associates," Aug. 3, 2009
  6. Kaplun, Eric, The New York Times, "Coal Industry Group Linked to a Dozen Forged Cap-And-Trade Letters," Aug. 4, 2009
  7. Power, Steven, The Wall Street Journal, "Big Coal Campaigning to Keep Its Industry on Candidates' Minds," October 20, 2008
  8. Marianne Lavelle, Energy Publisher, "Think again about clean coal", May 25, 2009
  9. BusinessWire, "New Multi-Industry Coalition Aligns to Advocate Energy Security and Environmental Stewardship", April 17, 2008
  10. Marianne Lavelle, Energy Publisher, "Think again about clean coal", May 25, 2009
  11. Coal Can Do That, Profile: Steve Miller
  12. Marianne Lavelle, Energy Publisher, "Think again about clean coal", May 25, 2009