"The official who's leading the charge for the Trump administration's effort to subsidize coal plants is a longtime lobbyist who represented a troubled Ohio utility that stands to directly benefit from the proposed change.

Sean Cunningham lobbied on behalf of FirstEnergy Corp. for nearly a decade before becoming executive director of the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis this year.

Cunningham has played a key role in crafting the controversial proposal, according to four sources familiar with the proposal who spoke on the condition of anonymity."

Benjamin Storrow and Hannah Northey report for ClimateWire November 3, 2017. [2]