When "FirstEnergy says PUC vote assures Davis-Besse operation for several years," Beyond Nuclear begs to differ

This still images comes from a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission video. The yellow arrow shows a sub-surface crack in Davis-Besse's concrete containment Shield Building wall. The cracking was revealed during an October 2011 reactor lid replacement. The cracking grows by a half-inch, or more, in length, every time it freezes out, due to Ice-Wedging Crack Propagation, due to water locked in the walls by FENOC's 2012 "White Wash" weather sealant of the Shield Building exterior, 40 years too late.In an article entitled "FirstEnergy says PUC vote assures Davis-Besse operation for several years," Nucleonics Week reporter Michael McAuliffe quoted Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps:

A coalition of anti-nuclear and environmental groups including Beyond Nuclear was also critical of the PUC decision.

“PUCO’s $4 billion bailout to FirstEnergy will mostly go towards padding the pockets of company executives and shareholders, not to critically needed repairs of safety systems, structures, and components,” Beyond Nuclear spokesman Kevin Kamps said in a March 31 statement.

[FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company, FENOC, spokesman] Colafella said “there are currently no major capital improvements needed at Davis-Besse.” But the coalition said that among needed plant maintenance is repairing a shield building which has a multitude of cracks. The shield building protects the reactor from impact by external objects.

Kamps questioned whether Davis-Besse will be able to remain in operation for the eight years covered by the plan and said in an April 4 interview that FirstEnergy does not “plan on plowing much of their bailout back into maintenance, and the NRC didn’t require it.”

Nucleonics Week is a publication of Platts/McGraw Hill Financial. This article appeared in Volume 57/Number 14 on April 7, 2016. (Nucleonics Week requires a subscription to access, $3,110 annually for one user. However, limited free trials are sometimes provided.)

Beyond Nuclear, along with Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario and Don't Waste Michigan, as well as the Ohio Green Party, have officially intervened against Davis-Besse's 2017-2037 license extension since 2010.

The coalition was joined in 2013 by the Sierra Club, in a challenge against Davis-Besse's risky, experimental steam generator replacements. In that intervention, the coalition was served by expert witness Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc. in Burlington, Vermont. Gundersen, as expert witness for Friends of the Earth regarding dangerously failed steam generator replacements at San Onofre nuclear power plant in southern California, played a key role in the permanent shutdown of the two reactors in June 2013.

Beyond Nuclear and Don't Waste Michigan issued a press release in response to the PUCO's bad decision on March 31st, listing the numerous, large ticket capital expenses Davis-Besse faces in the near future, by its own documented admissions. (See the Word version for functioning URL links.)

The press release quotes the environmental coalition's legal counsel, Toledo attorney Terry Lodge: The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) chained and shackled Ohio ratepayers with a burdensome "Pig in a Poke" known as Davis-Besse.

Resistance continues against nuke industry mega-money grabs

"Burning Money" graphic art by Gene Case, Avenging AngelsNuclear power industry attempted ratepayer robberies are coming to a head all across the country, and there is a mix of good news and bad. See updates below about the continued resistance against the nuclear lobby's money grabs, in an effort to prop up dirty, dangerously age-degraded, and uncompetitive atomic reactors:

FirstEnergy in Ohio

As reported by Midwest Energy News, the fight against ratepayer bailouts for age-degraded, uncompetitive electric plants in Ohio -- including FirstEnergy's dangerously deteriorating Davis-Besse atomic reactor -- "isn't over." The resistance could soon move to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Opponents include the renewable energy industry, electric generation competitors, the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel (which has estimated that FENOC's bailout alone will top $3.9 billion, with a large share of that going to prop up Davis-Besse), and environmental groups such as Environmental Defense Fund, and Ohio Environmental Council.

Sierra Club, represented by Earthjustice in the PUCO proceeding, has stood steadfast against the FENOC bailout. A few years ago, Sierra Club joined an environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario (CEA), and Don't Waste Michigan (DWM), in opposing Davis-Besse's risky, experimental steam generator replacements. Sierra Club also filed a friend of the court brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in support of Beyond Nuclear et al.'s legal challenge to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Nuclear Waste Confidence/Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel policy.

Beyond Nuclear, along with CEA and DWM, as well as the Ohio Green Party, have officially intervened against Davis-Besse's 2017-2037 license extension since 2010.

Beyond Nuclear and DWM issued a press release in response to the PUCO's bad decision, listing the numerous, large ticket capital expenses Davis-Besse faces in the near future, by its own documented admissions. (See the Word version for functioning URL links.)

The press release quotes the environmental coalition's legal counsel, Toledo attorney Terry Lodge: The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) chained and shackled Ohio ratepayers with a burdensome "Pig in a Poke" known as Davis-Besse.

The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis has also published a scathing critique of the PUCO's bailout approval. IEEFA is based in Cleveland, OH.

Exelon in Washington, D.C. and Maryland

The 30-day clock is ticking down for parties to the District of Columbia Public Service Commission's (DC PSC) outrageous, legally-dubious approval of Exelon's $6.8 billion takeover of Mid-Atlantic utility Pepco. DC was the last hurdle, as PSCs in MD, DE, NJ, and VA, as well as DOJ and FERC had already approved the objectionable takeover.

PowerDC, the grassroots coalition of environmental, public interest, and ratepayer protection groups, has issued an action alert urging folks pressure D.C. consumer advocate, Office of People's Counsel Sandra Mattavous-Frye, and D.C. Attorney General, Karl Racine, to protect the residents and ratepayers of the District of Columbia, by resisting the DC PSC's "shocking mistake" and "erroneous decision."

Exelon's motivations are thinly veiled. As DC PSC Chairman Betty Ann Kane, who consistently opposed the takeover for the past two years, has put it:

The stated motive of the sellers is to increase PHI [Pepco Holdings, Inc.] shareholder value. The motive of the buyers is to add regulated revenue to prop up Exelon's failure to pay dividends to its shareholders. However the needs of Pepco's customers and the District are for a safe, reliable, modern electricity delivery distribution system at a just and reasonable cost. I vote No. (emphasis added)

As reported by the Baltimore Sun, resistance to Exelon's takeover of Pepco continues in Maryland as well:

Opponents of the deal in Maryland expressed disappointment that the D.C. commissioners removed what had been the merger's final hurdle.

Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh "remains fundamentally opposed to the merger, because he believes it does not benefit consumers and it stifles efficiency, innovation and the adoption of alternative energy sources," spokesman David Nitkin said in an email.

Frosh plans to review the commission's ruling and determine any next steps.

Paula Carmody, the Maryland People's Counsel, said she expects the deal to come back to the Maryland Public Service Commission for further review. A clause in the Maryland commission's terms with Exelon and Pepco allows it to seek further benefits for utility customers in the state if the companies agree to more generous terms elsewhere.

"We will be pursuing all that we can on behalf of our customers to make sure they at least have equal benefits," Carmody said.

The Maryland PSC approved the deal in May based on conditions that included $100 bill credits for customers of Pepco in Maryland's Washington suburbs and its subsidiary Delmarva Power on the Eastern Shore. It was not immediately clear how the D.C. commission's terms compared with those imposed in Maryland, Carmody said.

Opponents of the deal plan to continue pursuing a legal challenge to Maryland's approval of the merger, Carmody said.

Last June, the Office of the People's Counsel, Maryland's consumer advocate, along with the Sierra Club and Chesapeake Climate Action Network, filed a lawsuit challenging the decision in the Circuit Court of Queen Anne's County, which is served by Delmarva Power. After a judge there rejected the lawsuit, the groups appealed to Maryland's Court of Special Appeals.

Exelon in Illinois

As reported by Crain's Chicago Business, Exelon's lobbyists are begging Illinois' governor, and state legislators, for a massive $1.6 billion bailout, to prop up five dangerously age-degraded, uncompetitive atomic reactors that would otherwise be closed.

And, as reported by Midwest Energy News, Exelon has a new ally in its money grab campaign: the Orwellian-named, nuclear industry front group, Environmental Progress Illinois, including pro-nuclear advocate Michael Shellenberger of Breakthrough Institute and "Pandora's Promise" infamy.

Joining the pro-nuke PR love fest in Chicago was climate scientist James Hansen, who for many years has refused to debate carbon-free, nuclear-free advocates, despite repeated requests. Now, in addition to Hansen's calls for non-existent, pie-in-the-sky, and even demonstrably failed Generation IV reactors, he is now calling for public subsidies for age-degraded Generation II reactors, such as Exelon's failing four-decade-old fleet in Illinois. Hansen has never responded to more than 300 environmental and clean energy groups, led by Civil Society Institute and NIRS, urging him to reconsider the unacceptable opportunity costs his nuclear power relapse would represent. This is not to mention nuclear power's non-starter status as a climate solution, given its astronomical costs, glacially slow deployment, and long list of its own insurmountable risks, as amply documented by IEER a decade ago.

As it has done for 35 years in the belly of the nuclear power beast, Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) of Chicago confronted Shellenberger, Hansen, and their Exelon backers directly at the event. NEIS executive director Dave Kraft asked Hansen why he won't address the work of Dr. Arjun Makhijani of IEER, but got no answer.

IEER President, Dr. Arjun Makhijani, author of the 2007 Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy, recently joined Dr. Mark Jacobson of Stanford University in a NIRS-sponsored telebriefing. Both confirmed that a carbon-free, nuclear-free energy system in the U.S. and worldwide is not only doable, but essentional for saving the climate.

Joe Romm at Center for American Progress has also written a good piece, "Why James Hansen is Wrong about Nuclear Power."

Michael Mariotte, President of NIRS and founder of the GreenWorld blog, has just posted this in response to Shellenberger and Hansen's shenanigans in Chicago:

New on GreenWorld. How low can they go? Hansen, Shellenberger now shilling for Exelon http://safeenergy.org/2016/04/06/how-low-can-they-go/

Seriously, do Hansen and Shellenberger really intend to argue that the world’s climate depends on whether three midwestern nuclear reactors stay open or not? Especially when, to the extent their power needs to be replaced at all it will not be replaced by coal (check out the growing list of coal bankruptcies, there won’t be any new coal plants in Illinois) but to some limited and temporary extent by gas and over the longer and larger term by clean energy. Genuinely clean energy. The kind that doesn’t routinely spew out toxic radiation into the air and water nor create lethal radioactive waste that–their protestations to the contrary–there is not yet, and may not be for centuries, a scientifically-responsible and publicly-acceptable storage solution.

Entergy Nuclear and Constellation Energy (Exelon & Electricite de France) in New York

As reported at Syracuse.com, Exelon is seeking bailouts from Upstate New York ratepayers. As in IL, Exelon is threatening to close its three Lake Ontario shoreline reactors -- Ginna, Nine Mile Point Unit 1, and Nine Mile Point Unit 2 -- unless the State of New York PSC bails them out, and soon. (On April 1, 2014, Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, LLC's five reactors in MD and NY -- Calvert Cliffs Units 1 & 2, Ginna, and Nine Mile Point Units 1 & 2, joined Exelon Nuclear's fleet. CENG is a joint venture between Exelon and Electricite de France, EDF. The French government is the majority shareholder in EDF.)

However, despite Governor Andrew Cuomo's and other elected officials' protestations, Entergy Nuclear's decision to permanently shut the FitzPatrick atomic reactor (a Fukushima Daiichi twin design, General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor) immediately adjacent to Nine Mile Point nuclear power plant appears to be irreversible: Jan. 27, 2017 has been set as the shutdown date, and Entergy has even gone so far as to withdraw License Amendment Requests from Nuclear Regulatory Commission consideration, that would have been necessary to continue operating the dangerously age-degraded reactor.

Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE) has taken a lead in organizing against Gov. Cuomo's "Nuclear Blank Check," intended to prop up FitzPatrick and other Upstate NY nukes under the guise of a "Clean Energy Standard." Joining with NIRS, AGREE has urged Cuomo and U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (the presumptive Democratic Leader in the U.S. Senate beginning next January) to "Let FitzPatrick Close." NIRS and AGREE prepared a white paper entitled REPLACING FITZPATRICK: How the Closure of a Nuclear Reactor can Reduce Greenhouse Gasses and Radioactive Waste, while Creating Jobs and Supporting the Local Economy.

AGREE and Citizens' Environmental Coalition (CEC) have likewise continued to watchdog the Ginna subsidization, which hopefully will end with Ginna's permanent closure in spring 2017.

On April 5th, AGREE provided a hopeful update on the ongoing resistance to these nuclear bailouts in Upstate NY.

For its part, while Entergy Nuclear seems to have pulled the plug on FitzPatrick, it is clearly focused on keeping its cash cow, Indian Point Units 2 & 3, operating -- including with public subsidies. If Gov. Cuomo's PSC attempts to exclude Indian Point from subsidization, Entergy is likely to file a lawsuit against the state.

To his credit, Gov. Cuomo has been very active and long sought the closure of Indian Point, given the impossibility of evacuating 20 million people within a 50-mile radius, in the event of a radioactive catastrophe. State agencies, following Cuomo's leadership, have demanded that Indian Point install cooling towers, at a cost of many hundreds of millions of dollars, if it wishes to operate for 20 more years. Each year, Indian Point kills billions of fish, by sucking them in with Hudson River water for cooling purposes, then discharges them, and superheated water, back out.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's has not only led the state's intervention before the NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board in opposition to Indian Point's 20 year license extension, but also its challenge against NRC's Nuclear Waste Confidence policy.

But Cuomo's concern about metro New York City should also apply in Upstate New York. Residents of the Lake Ontario shoreline, and even much further inland, are hemmed in by the lake to the north, and by the Canadian border to the west.

Dominion Nuclear in Connecticut

The nuclear money grab now extends to CT! On March 24th, Judi Friedman with PACE (People's Action for Clean Energy) in CT put out the following; please help spread the word to anyone you may know in CT:

ALERT: please write! Dominion wants ratepayer dollars for Millstone

CT's Nuke operators are back for another handout at the last minute!!

Millstone owners and nuclear power leaders have been recklessly uneconomic from the start. We are still paying massive cost overruns at MILLSTONE III. The only reason nuclear power exists is the subsidization of every aspect of the industry by all of us!

Our nuclear plants are aging and therefore dangerous! Our nuclear plants continually emit low level radiation into the water and air! Our nuclear plants are terrorist targets! Our nuclear plants are not carbon free. Carbon is used in the milling and mining and transport of uranium, for backup generation in case of failure and many other purposes. Dominion has already closed other plants.

Germany has responded to the Fukushima disaster by planning to shut down nuclear reactors because of their smart early and widespread adoption of solar, other renewables and energy efficiency. The longer we delay shared solar and investment in clean energy the more vulnerable we are to extortion claims like this. THIS IS EXTORTION!

Today: Thursday at 1 pm there will be an informational forum about possible ratepayer subsidies to support Millstone, because the power it produces now costs more relative to other sources, as natural gas prices have declined.  More about it in  CT Mirror article here:  http://ctmirror.org/2016/03/23/nuclear-powers-future-in-connecticut-is-on-the-table/#

What you can do:

Attend the hearing if you can:  1 pm, Room 1D, Legislative Office Building (notice and agenda below).  If you plan to testify, it will likely be later in the afternoon -- see info below about signing up and copies

Watch the hearing on CT-N:  it will be broadcast on one of CT-N's live streams (http://www.ct-n.com/)

Email testimony to the Committee:  Testimony may be submitted anytime to this address:  ettestimony@cga.ct.gov    Tell  the Committee  how you feel about nuclear power plants in Connecticut  and subsidizing them !

---------------------

The Energy and Technology Committee will hold an informational forum, with public comment, on "The Adequacy of Energy Supplies Including Nuclear Power in the State" on Thursday, March 24, 2016 at 1:00 P.M. in Room 1D of the LOB. Public speakers will be limited to three minutes of testimony. The Committee encourages witnesses to submit a written statement and to condense oral testimony to a summary of that statement. Sign-ups for the forum will begin at 11:00 A.M. in Room 3900 of the LOB.

Please submit 30 copies of written testimony to the staff. Unofficial sign-up sheets have no standing with the Committee. All public testimony, written and spoken, is public information. As such, it will be made available on the CGA website and indexed by internet search engines.

Nuclear robber barons, riding radioactive white elephants: PSC approves Exelon takeover of Pepco, against the will of D.C.!

Sept. 17, 2015 PowerDC rally against Exelon takeover of Pepco, before marching to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's office to deliver the hand-signed banner

Does D.C. stand for "Den of Corruption"? With a radioactive twist?

As reported by the Washington Post, in the latest shocking reversal -- of its own vote just a few weeks ago -- a 2-1 majority of the District of Columbia Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved Exelon Nuclear's takeover of Mid-Atlantic electric utility Pepco.

See the D.C. PSC press release announcing the split decision.

D.C. PSC Chairman, Betty Ann Kane, voted against Exelon's takeover of Pepco for the third time since August. In her Dissenting Opinion (see Appendix A to the PSC Order, pages 33-35 of 65 on the PDF counter), Kane wrote this remarkable passage:

Based on its merits, I find that while the proposed changes address some of my concerns, many others remain. Most importantly, none of the revisions to the 142 terms of the proposed acquisition change the fundamental inherent conflict which has led me on two prior occasions to find that the proposal is not in the public interest. There are many promises and a lot of money being offered. Expensive wedding gifts are nice. But all the wedding gifts in the world can't make a bad marriage good. (emphasis added)

Kane concluded her Dissent:

Unlike a rate case, the sale of Pepco won't be reviewed by the Commission and can't be adjusted every few years. It is gone forever. The stated motive of the sellers is to increase PHI [Pepco Holdings, Inc.] shareholder value. The motive of the buyers is to add regulated revenue to prop up Exelon's failure to pay dividends to its shareholders. However the needs of Pepco's customers and the District are for a safe, reliable, modern electricity delivery distribution system at a just and reasonable cost. I vote No. [emphasis added; internal citations omitted]

"Exelon's failure to pay dividends to its shareholders" is due to its five uncompetitive atomic reactors in IL, as well as Ginna in NY. In that very real sense, Exelon's takeover of Pepco's captive ratepayer base, across multiple Mid-Atlantic states and D.C., amounts to a massive, "life support" subsidy for age-degraded, failing, dirty, dangerous, and expensive nuclear power plants, that would otherwise likely close.

The PSC vote caught even trade press publications like Utility Dive by surprise, which just hours earlier had predicted the merger was likely going down to defeat, after a united Washington, D.C. city elected leadership had expressed its opposition to the latest takeover terms.

Exelon will pay $6.8 billion to take over Pepco, paying a large premium to Pepco shareholders for their stock holdings. Exelon has reportedly spent an additional $200-300 million, on such things as lawyers, lobbyists, and pull-out-the-stops PR campaigns, to secure the merger. Within minutes of the PSC's ruling announcement, Pepco shares increased in value by 25-30%, as reported by TheStreet.

Indeed, leading Exelon takeover opponent, D.C. Council Member Mary Cheh, stated to reporters moments after the D.C. PSC announced its ruling at its HQ hearing room in downtown D.C., that Exelon Corporation, and Pepco shareholders, were the sole beneficiaries of this bad decision, while D.C. ratepayers will be harmed.

The 2-1 DC PSC majority ruling defies the will of D.C.'s mayor, attorney general, and Office of People's Counsel, as well as its water department, and other parties to the proceeding, including member groups of the PowerDC public interest and environmental coalition.

Even the federal government -- the largest consumer of electricity in D.C. -- urged the PSC to reject Exelon and Pepco's latest proposal, citing dissent from D.C.'s local elected and appointed leadership, as well as the very narrow constraints of the PSC's previous rulings, requiring unanimity amongst all "Settling Parties," which is lacking. This begs the question, was this highly irregular, acrobatic D.C. PSC split-decision approval of Exelon's takeover of Pepco even legal?!

As reported by Utility Dive,

While the GSA is an important intervenor in the merger docket, it did not sign onto the settlement deal itself, saying it did not have time to review the deal before the merger docket was reopened.

This is quite an indictment of the D.C. PSC process. If the U.S. federal government General Services Administration (GSA), an official party to the proceeding, with a large budget and full staff of competent financial, legal, and technical experts, can't keep up with this D.C. PSC proceeding's roller coaster ride, how are D.C. ratepayers, non-profit groups, etc. supposed to?! This process has thus lacked essential, adequate openness, transparency, and accountability.

It appears that Exelon's previously pledged, even token commitments towards renewables, efficiency, micro-grids, etc. -- to sweeten the deal -- are now at risk. At least a portion of those funds will now likely be re-directed to cushion the blow of major rate hikes for D.C. residents, many of whom barely get by on fixed incomes, that could hit as early as this summer.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who had recently supported Exelon's takeover, so long as Exelon's planned 45% rate hikes would not hit till 2019 (after her 2018 re-election campaign), recently reversed herself and opposed the Exelon takeover.

(Incredibly enough, under the previous terms that Mayor Bowser supported, Exelon was planning to charge interest on its coveted, accumulating rate hike, which would then have been applied in 2019!)

D.C. Mayor Bowser released a short statement in response to the D.C. PSC approval of the Exelon takoever of Pepco:

“It appears the Public Service Commission favors government and commercial ratepayers over DC residents. Instead of a three year rate increase reprieve that we negotiated, it appears that DC residents will be hit with a rate increase as soon as this summer.”

But the mayor's previous support had created a Frankenstein's monster, that got out of her control. The question now that the D.C. PSC proceeding roller coaster ride is apparently over, and this juggernaut has been set loose on the region, is how much damage will be done to Washington, D.C., including ratepayer pocketbooks (especially for those on fixed incomes, such as low income households, seniors, etc.), and local laws and policies envisioning a clean, green, sustainable energy future?!

D.C. Office of People's Counsel (OPC) Sandra Mattavous-Frye expressed deep concern "that residential consumers are losing out on the guaranteed rate protections OPC has sought since this case began two years ago," and added:

"Despite the Commission's perplexing approval of a proposal that OPC and most of the other settling parties rejected, the Office of the People's Counsel is fully prepared to continue to aggressively advocate for ratepayers and fight to ensure that rates remain affordable for consumers, particularly for our most economically vulnerable residents...".

D.C. Attorney General, Karl A. Racine, also restated his opposition to the now-approved Exelon takeover of Pepco:

“As we have previously stated, the only Pepco-Exelon merger agreement we believe is in the public interest is the agreement our office originally helped to negotiate, along with the Office of People’s Counsel and the Mayor’s office, last fall. We do not believe the agreement the Public Service Commission approved today provides enough benefits or protections for residential, including low-income, ratepayers.”

As warned by Beyond Nuclear and many others for the past many months and even years of this D.C. PSC proceeding, Exelon will now gouge ratepayers not only in D.C., but from NJ to DE, MD, and VA, across Pepco's service territory. The public utility commissions in those states had already blessed the highly controversial merger. So too had FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) and DOJ (U.S. Department of Justice). D.C. was the last chance to stop it.

Opponents to the merger now have 30 days to file a motion for reconsideration with the D.C. PSC.

Those steady Mid-Atlantic ratepayer funds will almost certainly be funneled by Exelon to Illinois, to help prop up five dirty, dangerous, expensive, and uncompetitive atomic reactors that otherwise might have closed for good. Exelon may even try to foist its astronomically expensive nuclear decommissioning bills on its newly acquired, far flung empire of captive ratepayers.

Exelon is simultaneously lobbying the Illinois state legislature for a massive bailout of more than $1.6 billion, for the same purpose.

Exelon's Ginna nuclear power plant in upstate NY would also likely already have been shut down, but for pricey surcharges being shouldered by Rochester Gas & Electric customers. AGREE is leading the resistance to that particular Exelon Nuclear bailout at ratepayer expense.

Thus, from NY to MD, PA to IL, Exelon Nuclear's fleet of two-dozen age-degraded atomic reactors is gouging ratepayers, like a herd of radioactive white elephants.

Exelon, the only company to be expelled from the American Wind Energy Association, is now no longer "just" the largest nuclear utility in the country, it is the largest electric utility in the country, after its highly controversial takeover of Pepco.

PowerDC has released the following statement:

"We are profoundly disappointed and saddened that the DC Public Service Commission has ignored the clear opposition to the proposed Exelon-PEPCO merger voiced by the District’s elected officials, community and business leaders, and residents.

"By approving the merger, the PSC has exposed our city to decades of higher rates, weakened its own ability to guide our city’s energy future, and helped ensure that DC will fall behind the rest of the US on clean, efficient energy.

“Our organizations and the citizens we represent will fight Exelon every step of the way to ensure that DC and the region do not suffer the same fate as Exelon’s other customers. And we will hold the PSC accountable for its actions in the months and years to come. The fight is not over.”

Allison Fisher, Outreach Director at Public Citizen’s Energy Program, released the following statement:

By clearing the path for Exelon to take over Pepco, the D.C. Public Service Commission has abdicated its responsibility to put the public interest before corporate profits. We are deeply disappointed that the commission discarded its well-informed and publicly supported position to reject the takeover.  

This is a huge loss for consumers, a discouraging setback for the institutions entrusted to protect them and a sad commentary on how things are done in the District.

Interviewed by WAMU, D.C. PSC Chairman Betty Anne Kane, who cast the dissenting vote against the takeover, warned that the decision undermines D.C. laws and regulations that envision a clean, green, sustainable energy system.

To learn more about Exelon's takeover of Pepco, and other nuclear utility money grabs at ratepayer and taxpayer expense, visit Beyond Nuclear's Nuclear Costs and Nuclear Subsidies website sub-sections.

Update on March 24, 2016 by admin

As reported by the Baltimore Sun:

The deal gives Exelon the steady, regulated earnings of Pepco to help offset losses at its aging fleet of nuclear power plants across the country. It also follows a trend of consolidation within the U.S. utility industry as power companies face tepid electricity demand, low energy prices and rising costs to upgrade old equipment and comply with pollution regulations.

The Baltimore Sun also reported on remaining resistance to the takeover in Maryland:

Opponents of the deal in Maryland expressed disappointment that the D.C. commissioners removed what had been the merger's final hurdle.

Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh "remains fundamentally opposed to the merger, because he believes it does not benefit consumers and it stifles efficiency, innovation and the adoption of alternative energy sources," spokesman David Nitkin said in an email.

Frosh plans to review the commission's ruling and determine any next steps.

Paula Carmody, the Maryland People's Counsel, said she expects the deal to come back to the Maryland Public Service Commission for further review. A clause in the Maryland commission's terms with Exelon and Pepco allows it to seek further benefits for utility customers in the state if the companies agree to more generous terms elsewhere.

"We will be pursuing all that we can on behalf of our customers to make sure they at least have equal benefits," Carmody said.

The Maryland PSC approved the deal in May based on conditions that included $100 bill credits for customers of Pepco in Maryland's Washington suburbs and its subsidiary Delmarva Power on the Eastern Shore. It was not immediately clear how the D.C. commission's terms compared with those imposed in Maryland, Carmody said.

Opponents of the deal plan to continue pursuing a legal challenge to Maryland's approval of the merger, Carmody said.

Last June, the Office of the People's Counsel, Maryland's consumer advocate, along with the Sierra Club and Chesapeake Climate Action Network, filed a lawsuit challenging the decision in the Circuit Court of Queen Anne's County, which is served by Delmarva Power. After a judge there rejected the lawsuit, the groups appealed to Maryland's Court of Special Appeals.

Exelon owns Constellation Energy/Baltimore Gas and Electric. Its headquarters in downtown Baltimore has been the frequent scene of protests, including against this takeover of Pepco, as well as the successful resistance of the proposed new Calvert Cliffs Unit 3 atomic reactor on the Chesapeake Bay, now cancelled. Exelon has shown its true colors after taking over Constellation Energy/Baltimore Gas & Electric several years ago. It has sought multiple, significant rate increases, all blessed by Maryland's Public Service Commission.

Update on March 24, 2016 by admin

Forbes coverage of this story includes:

In dissenting in February, Chair Betty Ann Kane wrote, “Exelon is not merging with Pepco, rather, it is acquiring it. The result is a structure by which Pepco would be owned and controlled in a manner that does not advance the public policy and law of the District of Columbia.”

The article also reports:

So, why is Exelon even interested in buying Pepco? To gain entrance into the Northeastern markets where Pepco serves and to improve its cash flows, which have been hurt by cheap natural gas that has eaten into its nuclear energy sales.

Update on March 24, 2016 by admin

Michael Mariotte, President of NIRS, has commented on Exelon's takeover of Pepco:

New on GreenWorld. Exelon: now the nation's largest electric utility  http://safeenergy.org/2016/03/24/exelon-now-the-nations-largest/

The vote was shocking. Last month, the PSC had again rejected the merger,  but proposed terms that it would find acceptable enough that it would approve the merger without another vote if all parties agreed to them. Only Pepco and Exelon agreed to the terms; D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, the People’s Counsel, the federal General Services Administration and the rest of the intervenors in the case rejected the terms.

Yesterday, the PSC approved the merger on its terms anyway–to the great joy of portions of the D.C. business community, which, as the Washington Post reported, “lobbied hard for the merger.”

Mariotte's blog includes this further questioning of the takeover approval's legality:

PSC Chair Betty Ann Kane, who steadfastly opposed the merger throughout the process, hinted in her dissenting opinion that the merger itself may be illegal. Wrote Kane [see here Dissenting Opinion, Attachment A, pages 33-35 of 65 on PDF counter],

“Indeed, developments in the record since my “No” vote on February 26, 2016 give me even stronger reasons to find that the takeover of the District’s electric distribution company by a multi-faceted vertically integrated generation-focused holding company, as proposed in the order before us, benefits Pepco and Exelon shareholders but does not provide sustainable benefits to District ratepayers, places Pepco within a structure that is contrary to District law and policy, and should be rejected.”

"Playing Nuclear-Plant Chicken: Exelon's Crane Makes Springfield Rounds Again"

The BEST coalition is described on its website as "a 501 (C)(4) nonprofit organization comprised of business, government and consumer groups as well as small and large businesses working to protect struggling Illinois ratepayers from rate increases caused by the proposed $1.6 billion Exelon bailout. We do not oppose nuclear power. We oppose bad policy that would increase costs to consumers and businesses without providing any benefits." (emphasis added)

BEST has reprinted at its website an article by Crain's Chicago Business, "Playing Nuclear-Plant Chicken: Exelon's Crane Makes Springfield Rounds Again."

Exelon's takeover of Pepco on brink of collapse!

Sept. 17, 2015 PowerDC rally against Exelon takeover of Pepco, before marching to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's office to deliver the hand-signed banner.As reported by the Washington Post, Chicago-based Exelon Nuclear and Mid-Atlantic utility Pepco have filed "last-ditch" proposals to save their $6.8 billion merger from imminent defeat. But the proposals lack support from any other party to the D.C. Public Service Commission (PSC) proceeding, including D.C.'s mayor, attorney general, and Office of Public Counsel. The proposals have been previously rejected by the D.C. PSC, multiple times. And they would up-end a proceeding that has been under way for two years already, providing the public with an absurdly short one-week time period in which to comment.

Although Exelon President and CEO, Chris Crane, had said recently to investors that he would walk away from the takevoer if it weren't settled by March 4, he has now urged the DC PSC to agree to the new bad deal by April 7.

PowerDC, a coalition of environmental, public interest, and ratepayer groups, urges D.C. residents and ratepayers to take action, to block Exelon's bad deal, once and for all.