NEI's Fertel: "Between 10 and 20 plants at risk" of near-term shutdown, absent massive ratepayer bailouts

As reported by E&E TV, the President and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, Marvin Fertel, has admitted that:

We think that, right now, if things don't change, we have somewhere between 10 and 20 plants at risk.

NEI's lobbyists, and those of the nuclear power industry writ large, are seeking massive state-level bailouts, at ratepayer expense, to prop up these failing reactors in such places as IL, NY, OH, PA, and elsewhere.

Fertel's admission came on the very same day as a hastily-arranged "save the nukes" emergency meeting was convened at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Oops! Exelon's compromise energy bill nearly zeroes out green-power funding

As reported by Steve Daniel's at Crain's Chicago Business, as Exelon Nuclear's well heeled lobbyists seek "the best democracy money can buy" (a phrase coined by investigative journalist and author Greg Pallast), they might want to hire a copy editor.

Exelon claims its omission of $133 million per year in renewable energy and efficiency funding in a major piece of legislation it is pushing in Illinois was a mere "clerical error." Exelon had just days earlier touted the $140 million per year in funding for genuinely clean energy as a major breakthrough it had reached with environmental groups and renewable energy businesses. But the final draft bill included only $7 million per year.

As reported in the article, critics aren't buying Exelon's "clerical error" mea culpa:

"This doesn't give us confidence that Exelon has reversed its historic opposition to the renewable portfolio standard," said Sarah Wochos, co-legislative director at the Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center. "In a carefully crafted bill, it's hard to believe that this latest attempt to eviscerate renewable funding was a two-page 'drafting error.' "

Exelon's "clerical error" comes after years of its lobbyists helping stymie the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard, refusing to allow a technical flaw to be fixed, effectively sabotaging renewable energy development in the state.

The "error" also comes after the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) expelled Exelon from its membership, after the company simultaneously lobbied at the federal level to terminate the Wind Power Production Tax Credit, while simultaneously taking advantage of it, itself.

And, as explained by Nuclear Energy Information Service of Chicago's (NEIS, Illinois' nuclear power watchdog for 35 years) Executive Director, David Kraft, in a May 9th action alert:

After a lull in pseudo-negotiations with Illinois environmental groups, Exelon dropped a new piece of nuclear bailout legislation on the legislature on May 4^th.  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.

To its credit, the State of Illinois Legislature has, thus far, proven itself to NOT be "the best democracy money can buy." Exelon's lobbyists failed a year ago to force through their nuclear power bailout scheme. Exelon has till May 31, 2016 to force its supposedly now corrected legislation into law. It has threatened to close three reactors at two plants, in the next two years, if it doesn't get its way.

If you are an Illinois resident, please contact Governor Rauner, State House Speaker Madigan, and State Senate President John Cullerton. See NEIS's action alert for direct contact info., as well as suggested talking points. If you are not an Illinois resident, but have friends, family, or colleagues who are, please urge them to take action! Grassroots citizen action could make all the difference -- indeed, it is the only thing that ever does!

Given the safety benefit of closing such age-degraded reactors, as well as stopping the generation of any more high-level radioactive waste for which there is no solution, these reactor closures would be a good thing. A just transition for the workforce, including into a growing Illinois renewable and efficiency sector, would set the state on the road to a clean energy future in a big way, while saving ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars per year in this latest round of attempted nuclear power mega-subsidies, at public expense.

Update on May 12, 2016 by admin

Capitolfax.com has posted the following response to this news:

Who ya gonna believe? Exelon or your lyin’ eyes

Thursday, May 12, 2016

[The following is a paid advertisement.]

Exelon was caught this week with their hand in the cookie jar.

Exelon, the only company ever kicked out of the American Wind Energy Association and the company single-handedly preventing a fix to Illinois’ broken RPS claims the near zeroing-out RPS funding in their multi-billion dollar bailout bill was a two-page “drafting error.”

 Crain’s exposed this latest outrage: Oops! Exelon’s compromise energy bill nearly zeroes out green-power funding.

 Other lowlights from the Exelon bailout bill? 

•  Permanent Nuclear Subsidy – Continues for the “useful life of the plant.”
•  Subsidy in Advance – Exelon gets their subsidy a year in advance by projecting revenues and costs. 
•  Windfall Profits – if energy prices go up, Exelon keeps the windfall profits.
•  ComEd Gets Back in the Generation Biz – breaks 1997 deregulation agreement preventing ComEd from  owning generation.
•  Demand Charge Rate Hike – First in nation “demand charge” will raise rates for nearly ½ of ComEd customers.
•  Energy Efficiency – ComEd to earn first-ever guaranteed profits on efficiency programs.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. 
JUST SAY NO TO THE EXELON BAILOUT.

 

 BEST Coalition is a 501C4 nonprofit group of dozens of business, consumer and government groups, as well as large and small businesses.  Visit www.noexelonbailout.com.

 

- Posted by Advertising Department

DOE Summit Aims to Preserve At-Risk US Reactors

As announced by the U.S. Department of Energy:

Three panels to discuss policy solutions for federal, state leaders

• Industry represented by NEI’s Fertel, PSEG’s Levis, Entergy’s Mohl, Exelon’s Dominguez
• DOE report will propose ways to retain zero-carbon nuclear

May 12, 2016—The U.S. Department of Energy next week will sponsor a summit of key decision-makers to highlight the need to keep the nation’s nuclear power plants operational.

Set for May 19 in the Hart Senate Office Building, the afternoon-long meeting of industry experts, legislators, administration officials and other stakeholders will discuss the issues facing at-risk nuclear power plants and the unintended consequences that arise from early plant retirements. The main objective of the summit is to identify near-term policy solutions that could address these concerns at the federal and state level.

The summit also will address technical options utilities are implementing to enhance operating nuclear plants’ economic competitiveness as part of the Delivering the Nuclear Promise initiative.

“There is an urgent need to develop policies that will prevent additional, premature nuclear power plant closures,” NEI Senior Director of Business Policy Matt Crozat says. “Preserving existing nuclear power plants is imperative to any credible plan to reduce carbon emissions and necessary to preserve jobs in their host communities.”

This is the second summit held by the Obama administration to highlight the vital role that nuclear energy needs to play in any credible effort to reduce carbon emissions from the power sector and to assure a reliable supply of zero-emission electricity. While aNovember 2015 White House summit focused on advanced nuclear technologies for the future, this summit will concentrate on existing U.S. reactors.

The summit comes on the heels of a May 6 announcement by Exelon that it will move forward with the early retirements of its Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear power plants in Illinois if the state does not pass adequate legislation recognizing those facilities’ emissions-free value. Meanwhile in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has asked the state’s Public Service Commission to develop a Clean Energy Standard that could keep some of the state’s nuclear plants open with “zero-emission credits” to help the state meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals.

Since 2012, eight U.S. reactors have closed, or announced their intent to close, and that list could expand. If these plants were to continue operation they would avoid between 35 million and 50 million tons of carbon emissions annually, producing as much clean electricity as all of the renewables deployed by the power sector over the past three years, Crozat notes.

“When existing nuclear power plants shut down, carbon reduction goals, electric system reliability and local jobs all suffer—sometimes dramatically,” Crozat says. “Policymakers and industry employees at all levels must work together decisively and promptly to preserve these important parts of America’s electricity infrastructure.”

The May 19 summit will consist of three panels that will identify actions that various stakeholders have taken and can take to improve the economics of existing nuclear power plants. DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz will deliver the keynote address. Speakers from industry will include NEI President and Chief Executive Officer Marvin Fertel, PSEG Power President and CEO William Levis, Entergy Wholesale Commodities President Bill Mohl and Joe Dominguez, Exelon Corp.’s executive vice president of governmental and regulatory affairs and public policy. Other speakers include Sens. Michael Crapo (R-Idaho) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.).

More information on the summit and a webcast link is available on DOE’s website.

NEIS: STOP NUCLEAR “TERRORISM” -- OPPOSE THE EXELON NUKE BAILOUT!!

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 4^th.  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.]

Critics: New FirstEnergy ‘bailout’ plan ‘would make Houdini blush’

Crews install new LED lighting in the sign at FirstEnergy's Akron headquarters.As reported by Kathiann M. Kowalski at Midwest Energy News, FirstEnergy's hail Mary pass to try to resurrect its billion dollar bailout approved by PUCO but rejected (for now) by FERC has generated fierce push back by critics and opponents.

The article quotes the State of Ohio Consumers' Counsel:

“This continuing saga of the FirstEnergy bailout remains a great risk for Ohioans' electric bills and, nearly two years into the state process, an imposition on government regulation that the public funds,” said Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Bruce Weston. “Enough is enough.‎"

The Electric Power Supply Association is also quoted:

“If anything, this new unprecedented scheme is worse,” said John Shelk, president of the Electric Power Supply Association. “It shows what we have said all along. This isn’t about protecting customers and retail rate stability, but about bailing out shareholders and management in the face of a looming credit downgrade.”

In his opinion, the “escape attempt” from FERC’s order requiring scrutiny of the power purchase agreement “would make even Houdini blush.” (emphasis added)

Environmental groups, including Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club, and Earthjustice, also oppose FirstEnergy's bailout attempt.

“FirstEnergy’s latest gambit underscores that its bailout proposal has nothing to do with protecting customers or preserving Ohio generation, and everything to do with propping up corporate profits,” said Shannon Fisk of Earthjustice on behalf of the Sierra Club

“We urge PUCO to reject FirstEnergy’s attempt to evade federal review of an illegal bailout that FirstEnergy acknowledges would cost customers at least $363 million in the first 31 months alone,” Fisk added.

In addition to propping up noncompetitive, 50-year old FirstEnergy coal burners, like Sammis and at OVEC (Ohio Valley Electric Cooperative, including units that historically electrified uranium enrichment facilities in the Ohio River Valley), the $3.9 to more than $5 billion bailout, over eight years, would also go towards propping up the problem-plagued, age-degraded FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) Davis-Besse atomic reactor on the Lake Erie shore east of Toledo. 

Since 2010, Beyond Nuclear has co-led an environmental coalition opposed to the 20-year (2017-2037) license extension at Davis-Besse. Beyond Nuclear et al.'s objection to high-level radioactive waste generation at Davis-Besse is still before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Toledo attorney Terry Lodge serves as legal counsel for the coalition opposing the license extension. D.C. attorney Diane Curran, and Atlanta attorney Mindy Goldstein, serve as Beyond Nuclear's legal counsel in the Nuclear Waste Confidence appeal; Natural Resource Defense Council's Geoff Fettus presented oral arguments at the D.C. Circuit, on behalf of the environmental coalition, on Feb. 22, 2016.