NY State cautionary tale: risks to public pocketbooks & safety from bailouts to prop up failing old reactors

On June 14, Long Island-based investigative journalist (honored in early 2018 as "Environmentalist of the Year" by the Long Island Sierra Club), and Beyond Nuclear board member, Karl Grossman, published "$7.6 Billion Subsidy (Tax Increase) Buried in Electric Bill." Karl has also hosted Enviro Close-Up videos for decades, and his latest episode features an interview with New York attorney Susan Shapiro, who is leading the grassroots environmental coalition and ratepayer legal challenge against NY Governor Andrew Cuomo's 12-year bailout, at exorbitant NY ratepayer expense, to keep four dangerously old upstate atomic reactors, on the Lake Ontario shore, operating, despite their worsening safety risks and economic uncompetitiveness. The Ginna atomic reactor is nearly a half-century old; the 44-year old Fitzpatrick and Nine Mile Point Unit 1 are Fukushima Daiichi twin designs (General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactors; see photos from the aftermath of the three atomic reactor meltdowns in Japan, above left); the 31-year old Nine Mile Point Unit 2 is a closely related GE BWR Mark II design, which also has a containment that is very likely too small and weak to prevent catastrophic releases of hazardous radioactivity, in the event of a reactor core meltdown, as have occurred in Japan since March 11, 2011. Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer at Fairewinds Energy Education, has warned in his essay "Downstream" just how irreparable such radioactivity releases would be to the Great Lakes. Lake Ontario is the drinking water supply for many millions downstream, including in Toronto, Ontario, Montreal, Quebec, and numerous Native American First Nations, as along the St. Lawrence River. As nuclear power industry lobbyists have won similar bailouts for old reactors in Illinois, seek them in multiple other states, and have President Trump and Energy Secretary Perry's ear regarding a proposed $34 billion per year, "renewables-destroying," old reactor and coal burner bailout, for 80 power plants across 13 states, NY State's already unfolding cautionary tale should serve as a dire warning. (Speaking of "cautionary tales of the Nuclear Age," check out veteran journalist and author Stephanie Cooke's powerful book, In Mortal Hands.)

Trump orders Perry to stop coal, nuclear retirements

This breaking news is reported by Utility Dive. It comes on the heels of a scoop by Bloomberg that "Trump Prepared Lifeline for Money-Losing Coal [and Nuclear] Power Plants."

Public Citizen's Energy Program director, Tyson Slocum, has issued a statement.

(Jessica Corbett at CommonDreams quoted not only Public Citizen, but also Sierra Club and Union of Concerned Scientists expressing strong objections to Trump's outrageous abuse of authority.)

If enacted, this bailout of some 80 coal and nuclear power plants in a 13-state region could cost the public $8 billion per year in dirty, dangerous, and expensive energy surcharges on their electric bills and/or income taxes.

AP reported on May 29th that energy lobbyist Jeff Miller is the carbon-breathing, radioactive swamp monster mutating U.S. energy markets for his client FirstEnergy, with his intimate access at the highest levels of the Trump administration. Miller is an old, close personal friend of Energy Secretary Rick Perry -- Miller served as Perry's campaign manager in his unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. And Miller sat down for a private dinner with Trump himself several weeks ago, with the president immediately stating publicly afterwards that this coal/nuclear bailout was a top priority for his administration.

Bloomberg also reported on May 29th:

Miller’s lobbying firm has already chalked up some wins.

Utility giant Southern Co., which hired Miller in March 2017 to lobby the Energy Department and others on nuclear energy issues, was awarded $3.7 billion in conditional loan guarantees for its troubled nuclear reactor project in Georgia.

Update on June 1, 2018 by admin

Brad Plumer at the New York Times has also reported on this story.

Update on June 1, 2018 by admin

This just reported by Bloomberg Government:

PJM Says `No Need' for Federal Action to Bail Out Coal, Nuclear

By Tim Loh | June 1, 2018 01:38PM ET | Bloomberg First Word

Largest U.S. power grid sees “any federal intervention” in markets that would force customers to buy electricity from specific power plants as “damaging” to markets and “costly to consumers”

• “There is no need for any such drastic action,” PJM Interconnection, which stretches from Chicago to Washington, says in emailed statement
• PJM hasn’t received any official document from U.S. Energy Department
• PJM analysis of recently announced coal, nuclear plant retirements shows “no immediate threat to system reliability”
• EARLIER: Trump Said to Prepare Lifeline for Money-Losing Coal Plants

Update on June 1, 2018 by admin

Steven Mufson in the Washington Post also reported on this story, in an article entitled "Trump orders Energy Secretary Perry to halt shutdown of coal and nuclear plants."

The Washington Post's Philip Bump has added a companion piece, "Trump's plan to use a Cold War-era law to bolster the coal [and nuclear] industry, explained."

Update on June 1, 2018 by admin

Ars Technica has also reported on this story.

Update on June 1, 2018 by admin

PowerMag also reported on this story.

Update on June 1, 2018 by admin

FirstEnergy Fact blog post by Dick Munson:

In an unprecedented move, President Trump today directed Secretary of Energy Rick Perry to take steps to bail out uneconomic coal and nuclear plants. 
 
You might recall FirstEnergy has spent years trying every possible avenue to prop up its uneconomic, unnecessary power plants, often relying on political contributions and high-powered lobbyists. Two arcane laws the utility giant has pointed to include the Defense Production Act and Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, both of which will likely form the basis of President Trump’s new directive.
 
We don’t know yet how today’s move will affect FirstEnergy, but it’s clear Washington’s new swamp has created a monster: A multi-billion dollar attack on American families, markets and the law. We look forward to forcefully opposing it every step of the way.

Update on June 1, 2018 by admin

Even Forbes columnists think Trump's move is a major mistake.

Update on June 2, 2018 by admin

Midwest Energy News's Kathiann Kowalski reports "FirstEnergy critics says PJM auction shows its nuclear plants aren't needed."

The article concludes:

“Grid experts have proven time and time again that FirstEnergy plants are not needed for reliability or resilience,” said Dick Munson, Environmental Defense Fund director for Midwest Clean Energy.

Learner, of the Environmental Law & Policy Center, said there is already a surplus of nuclear generation in the Midwest, which is why some didn’t clear the PJM auction. FirstEnergy’s poor business decisions in the past should not now let it get subsidies for uncompetitive coal and nuclear plants, he added.

“That’s like asking consumers to pay more to subsidize landline phones or camera film while cell phones and digital cameras are better products that are winning in the competitive markets,” Learner said.

In his view, “FES’s request for costly public subsidies amounts to ‘lemon socialism.’” (emphasis added)

Given that punch line, we HAVE to show the great art by J. deStefano, above left, which she put out in 2012-2013 in the successful campaign to shut down the nuclear lemons, a.k.a. San Onofre Units 2 & 3, in s. CA!

Update on June 2, 2018 by admin

Ashley Braun of DeSmogBlog (reprinted at Truthout) got the headline just about right:

Rick Perry Resorts to Subsidizing Coal [and Nuclear] With Measures Used in Wartime and Natural Disasters

Note that no such lifeline has been extended by the Trump administration to Puerto Rico. Harvard University just released a report that documents nearly 5,000 people perished -- a significant number due to the prolonged lack of electricity, as in the complication of pre-existing medical conditions -- in the aftermath of last summer's Hurricane Maria. Some there still lack electricity, as this year's Atlantic hurricane season just began. (But at least some Puerto Rican Trump supporters did receive free rolls of paper towel, jovially flung at them, basketball free throw style, by the Donald!)

Update on June 2, 2018 by admin

Tom Henry at the Toledo Blade has published a column entitled "FirstEnergy's request for Trump relief draws more critics."

Trump Prepares Lifeline for Money-Losing Coal Power [and Nuclear] Plants

As reported by Jennifer Dlouhy in Bloomberg.