Coal gets permanent advisory seat at energy policy table
H.R. 3015 — National Coal Council Reestablishment Act · Filed by Michael Rulli (R-OH) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Apr 24, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
This bill reestablishes the National Coal Council, an advisory body within the Department of Energy that was previously dissolved. The Council will provide advice to the Secretary of Energy on coal-related matters and will operate under the same charter that governed it as of November 2021. The Council must follow federal advisory committee rules, but is exempt from automatic termination provisions.
Why we flagged it
The bill creates a permanent, industry-specific advisory council with no sunset date and no requirement for balanced stakeholder representation. It is functionally a formalized lobbying channel for coal interests within the federal energy bureaucracy, dressed in the language of advisory transparency.
What the text implies
- The exemption from section 1013 (automatic termination of advisory committees after 2 years) means the Council has no built-in sunset—it persists indefinitely unless Congress acts to dissolve it, creating a permanent institutional advantage for coal industry input.
- The charter referenced (November 19, 2021) predates the Biden administration's climate commitments; restoring that specific charter may lock in coal-friendly advisory language and priorities from a prior policy era.
- Federal Advisory Committee Act compliance requires public meetings and disclosure, but does not mandate balanced representation—the Council's composition is not specified in this bill, leaving DOE discretion to staff it with coal-industry nominees.
- The bill creates no counterweight: no requirement for environmental, consumer, renewable energy, or climate-science representation, meaning the advisory input to DOE on energy policy will be structurally one-sided.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Citizens benefit from transparent advisory input to energy policy (the Council must comply with Federal Advisory Committee Act sunshine rules, making meetings and advice public). However, the bill creates a permanent, industry-dominated advisory body with no sunset clause and no requirement for balanced representation of public interests, environmental concerns, or consumer perspectives—potentially tilting DOE energy advice toward coal industry preferences over broader public energy and climate
Who stands to gain
- coal mining companies
- coal-fired power utilities
- coal industry trade associations
- coal transportation and logistics firms
Named in the bill
Department of Energy, National Coal Council, Federal Advisory Committee Act, Secretary of Energy, House Committee on Energy and Commerce
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 5 Republicans.
- Apr 24, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Apr 24, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce and Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
- Jun 5, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Jun 25, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported by the Yeas and Nays: 25 - 20”
- Sep 18, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 217 - 209 (Roll no. 278).”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
14 lobbying clients named this bill on 25 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $61,828,610 in lobbying spend. A filing names 49 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 94% of bills with at least one filing.
Michael Rulli, the sponsor, reported $767,250 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle. $2,500 of that came from 1 PAC tied to these lobbying clients.
- Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. — $54,660,000 on 3 filings
- Edison Electric Institute — $4,248,610 on 2 filings
- Firstenergy Corp — $500,000 on 2 filings
- American Electric Power Company, Inc. and Affiliated Corporations — $380,000 on 1 filing
- Cms Energy Corp — $370,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (808 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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