CANB Statement: Exelon makes boardroom decision to not invest in TMI

CANB, Citizens Against Nuclear Bailouts (Pennsylvania), has issued the following statement:

Exelon makes boardroom decision to not invest in TMI

HARRISBURG, Pa. (May 8) – Citizens Against Nuclear Bailouts — a diverse coalition of Pennsylvania citizens’ groups, power generators, and energy, business and manufacturing associations — has issued the following statement in response to Exelon Generation’s announcement to end nuclear generation operations at its Three Mile Island nuclear facility.

Exelon Generation has made a business decision to begin the process of ending nuclear generation operations at Three Mile Island rather than invest the corporation’s billions of dollars in profits to support the plant, community and its employees.

This decision was made in their boardroom, where it belongs. Exelon should never have held their employees and the community hostage as it demanded a bailout from Pennsylvania ratepayers and lawmakers.

Moving forward, decommissioning will take place over the course of decades as Exelon works to secure the 650 metric tons of spent nuclear waste fuel on-site. This will require many employees, and we hope that Exelon holds true to their May 2018 statement that the majority of the remaining 400 employees at the site will continue to work at the plant during the decommissioning process.

We fully expect Exelon, FirstEnergy Solutions and Talen Energy will continue to push for an unwarranted nearly half-billion-dollar ratepayer-funded corporate handout from lawmakers in the Capitol.

Pennsylvania lawmakers should continue to reject this attempt at a corporate cash grab being led by three out-of-state corporations projected to make more than $1 billion in profits in Pennsylvania in 2018 and 2019.

— Citizens Against Nuclear Bailouts

PA State Rep. Mehaffie Statement on TMI Closure Announcement

See the press statement by Pennsylvania State Representative, Thomas Mehaffie, here.

Testimony of Beyond Nuclear, Before the Ohio House of Representatives – Energy Generation Subcommittee, Committee Meeting on Proposed H.B. No. 6 “Creates Ohio Clean Air Program”

As posted at Beyond Nuclear's SUBSIDIES website subsection.

Update on April 29, 2019 by admin

As reported by Midwest Energy News:

Leaders of an environmental and a fossil fuel group in Ohio say proposed legislation to support uneconomic nuclear plants doesn’t address the state’s future energy needs. (Columbus Dispatch)

Update on May 6, 2019 by admin

"Conservatives criticize FirstEnergy nuclear bailout bill as ‘corporate welfare,’" as reported by Midwest Energy News.

Update on May 9, 2019 by admin

Beyond Nuclear re-submitted the same testimony as above, on May 8th, to the committee level of the Ohio state legislature.

Sierra Club reports on this latest round of legislative hearings:

Of the 81 submissions of testimony, only 2 were supportive of this bill and one of those was from First Energy Solutions! 5 were interested parties, and the rest were opposition...

If you'd like to read the testimony you can find it here. Click the arrow next to the date to expand the menu and you'll see the list of documents.

Sierra Club also shared this recent media coverage:

Lawmaker argues low-income Ohioans should pay their own energy-efficiency costs

Nuclear power companies have spent millions lobbying for subsidies. Should Ohio, other states bail them out?

Consumer fee reduced under revised nuclear bailout bill  

Sierra Club encourages letters to the editor of local newspapers in response, and shared these talking points on House Bill 6 (HB6) you can use to prepare your own.

South Carolina Spent $9 Billion to Dig a Hole in the Ground and Then Fill it Back in

As reported by Akela Lacy in The Intercept.

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.)