STOP NUCLEAR “TERRORISM” -- OPPOSE THE EXELON NUKE BAILOUT!!
They’re baaaack!! After a lull in pseudo-negotiations with Illinois environmental groups, Exelon dropped a new piece of nuclear bailout legislation on the legislature on May 4th. Titled the “Next Generation Energy Plan,” it is SB.1585. Introduced BY Exelon while they were in allegedly “good-faith” negotiations with members of the Clean Jobs Coalition (CJC), the bill was introduced without warning. Exelon claims it to be, “a result of discussions between Exelon Generation, ComEd, the Clean Jobs Coalition, and other key stakeholders,” and “…reflects the best of all three bills introduced by Exelon Generation, ComEd, and the Clean Jobs Coalition in 2015….” (Source: “Nuclear Power Matters” e-mail blast to Exelon supporters.). So much for “good faith negotiations.” To be clear: the Clean Jobs Coalition and enviro groups did NOT endorse, nor collaborate in the creation of the Exelon bailout bill.
In another “Nuclear Power Matters” e-mail, Exelon threatens, “…if the Next Generation Energy Plan does not pass by May 31 – the end of Illinois’ spring legislative session – the Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear power plants will be shut down on June 1, 2017, and June 1, 2018, respectively.” To which NEIS replies: GREAT! (except for the workers and the reactor communities that Exelon is holding as “nuclear hostages” with the Illinois Legislators, who in an election year are more concerned about jobs than they are about the environment and sound, long-term energy policy).
WHAT YOU CAN DO: STOP NUCLEAR TERRORISM**! –
It’s time we call their bluff, and call their behavior for what it is. It is EXELON that is deciding to shut the reactors and fire the workers and trash the communities if they don’t get their bailout, no one else. Let THEM take the heat for the consequences.
Contact:
• Governor Bruce Rauner, (312) 814-2121; also, you can leave a written message on the Governor’s website at: http://www.illinois.gov/gov/contactus/Pages/VoiceAnOpinion.aspx
• House Speaker Michael Madigan, (217) 782-5350
• Senate Pres. John Cullerton, (773) 883-0770
The Message:
• NO bailouts for Exelon’s aging, money losing reactors
• Fix the Renewable Portfolio Standard NOW and FIRST
• Enact a “just transitions” program for reactor communities and displaced workers;
• Enact strong reactor decommissioning laws, which Illinois currently lacks
• Add your own message
[NOTE: ** For those who think we exaggerate, one of the three conditions the FBI has set for defining domestic terrorism states that an act, “Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.” Threatened “economic mass destruction” would seem to be a “lite” version of this condition. “Back in the days” of the Chicago Mob, this kind of thing was simply “extortion,” or, as is more commonly known nowadays, “Making an offer they can’t refuse.” –DK--]
[This action alert was prepared by David Kraft, Executive Director, Nuclear Energy Information Service of Chicago, Illinois' nuclear power watchdog for the past 35 years.]