Exelon lobbyists' coveted $1.6 billion bailout, at IL ratepayer expense, fails again, as legislative session ends

David Kraft, Executive Director, Nuclear Energy Information Service of ChicagoAs reported by the News-Gazette and Quad-City Times, Exelon Nuclear's lobbyists have failed in 2016, just as they did in 2015, as the state legislative session has ended, without passage of a $1.6 billion, multi-year bailout bill. Exelon seeks to gouge IL ratepayers, in order to prop up three non-competitive atomic reactors -- at Clinton and Quad Cities.

Similarly to its threats/promises (depending on your perspective on the matter!) Exelon made last year, it has said it would close the single pressurized water reactor at Clinton by June 1, 2017, if the bailout was not approved by now. Likewise, Exelon has indicated it would permanently shut its two Fukushima twin design General Electric Mark I boiling water reactors at Quad Cities, without the bailout.

(See Beyond Nuclear's "Reactors Are Closing" website page, for a list of others at risk of near-term shutdown. the CEO of Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear power industry's lobbyist HQ in DC, has admitted that 10 to 20 atomic reactors are at risk of shutdown due to being non-competitive, although he did not list them by name. However, Dr. Mark Cooper of Vermont Law School did list them, in a July 2013 report. Cooper listed a total of 38 reactors at risk of shutdown before their operating license expire, due to a number of factors; Cooper also listed the top 12 most at-risk of near-term shutdown. With the closure of Vermont Yankee, and the announced closures of Fort Calhoun in NE, FitzPatrick in NY, Pilgrim in MA, Cooper's predictions have been proven prescient and correct.)

However, Exelon did not live up to its words last year. In fact, as mentioned in the May 31st update for NEIS members (see link, below), Exelon has made this bluff and bluster several times now, and gone back on its word each time.

An Exelon spokesman has now said the company will make an official statement in the next days, in response to this year's repeat close of the legislative session without approval of its coveted $1.6 billion ratepayer bailout.

David Kraft (photo above), Executive Director of Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS in Chicago), has issued a press statement in response to the failure of Exelon's lobbyists to gouge IL's ratepayers, yet again this year. (Kraft cites a spreadsheet of IL atomic reactor license expiration dates, viewable at this link.)

On May 31st, about six hours before midnight, Kraft also prepared an update for NEIS members, thanking and congratulating them for their citizen activism that has made such a big difference in this fight. NEIS has led the grassroots opposition in IL to the Exelon bailout bills.

Beyond Nuclear forwarded NEIS's action alerts to our contacts in IL a number of times in the past few critical weeks. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank our own supporters in IL, who took action, and thereby helped stave off this latest attempt at a $1.6 billion ratepayer-funded bailout for the filthy rich Exelon Corporation, the largest electric utility in the U.S.

Kraft warns that vigilance is needed in the weeks and months ahead, as Exelon Nuclear's lobbyists are powerful, desperate, and ruthless to the point of a scorched earth policy.

Given this, what can you do? Consult NEIS's latest action alert. Thank your state legislators that the bailout bill died with the end of the legislative session. And urge that they do everything in their power to keep it dead, whatever form it takes.

Kraft's press statement begins:

At last, the “nuclear hostage crisis” is over.  For now at least.

The failure of Exelon Corporation’s legislation to socialize the cost of its corporate losses at its Clinton and Quad Cities reactors to every ratepayer in Illinois is welcome news.  However, many other very real issues and effects have yet to be dealt with.

Exelon’s attempted $1.6 billion nuclear bailout overreach has acted much like a kamikaze – while self destructing, its failure has also taken down the asks of Commonwealth Edison, and for the fourth straight year, killed actions needed to fix the State’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS), one of the goals of the Clean Jobs Coalition.  Once again, Exelon makes it clear – if they can’t get what they want, they are perfectly willing to destroy the vital and necessary energy plans of others, leaving Illinois further and further behind in the ongoing worldwide energy transition.

And what of the other “nuclear hostages” – the workers at the reactors slated for closure, and the communities that depend heavily on Exelon’s financial support?  Well, no action was taken to protect them, either.  Despite the urgings of this organization since ComEd closed the Zion reactors in 1998, and with many legislators in the current legislative debate, no legislative efforts have been made to create the necessary “just transitions” plans to provide a financial buffer against the adverse economic effects of inevitable reactor closures.  The Clean Jobs Bill had provisions to protect affected workers and communities, but Exelon’s obstructionism killed that legislation.  It is more than ironic that the only advocates in behalf of the workers and communities who will be affected by Exelon’s unilateral decision to close reactors are anti-nuclear organizations like NEIS and the Clean Jobs Coalition.  Where is the IBEW, and the many local political backers of the Exelon bill when they are needed?

Exelon Nuclear's overreach has generated other powerful opposition, including the Office of IL Attorney General, Lisa Madigan. A spokesperson from AG Madigan's office, testifying at recent IL state legislative hearings on the proposed bailout, pointed out that Exelon's atomic reactors have already been paid for by IL ratepayers -- twice! It is entirely inappropriate, she indicated, that IL ratepayers be forced to pay for them all over again, for a third time. 

On May 25th, Exelon Nuclear suffered another blow, when its Quad Cities, IL and Three Mile Island Unit 1, PA nuclear power plants failed to clear the PJM auction for capacity markets in 2019-2020, because their electricity is non-competitive with other sources' sales price bids. (See PowerMag coverage here.)