Beyond Nuclear - NUCLEAR POWER

NEIS Board Member Linda Lewison in discussion with Environmental Law Policy Center’s Barry Matchett in Springfield, IL. Photo courtesy of NEIS.As related in a Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) press release, an Illinois State House of Representatives resolution, HR1146, is the prelude to a "bailout" for Exelon's unprofitable atomic reactors, as well as a nationwide anti-renewables campaign being waged by the largest nuclear power utilities in the country.

"The Nuclear Power Plant Closure" resolution was introduced by IL House Speaker Mike Madigan only last Friday, May 23^rd, at the beginning of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, largely at the behest of Exelon Corporation. It sets in motion policy and governmental mechanisms that would essentially “nuke” renewable energy in Illinois, and guarantee that nuclear and coal would be the mainstay of Illinois electricity production for the foreseeable future.

“This Resolution takes energy in Illinois backwards at least 15 years,” says David Kraft, Director of the Chicago-based Nuclear Energy Information Service, a nuclear watchdog and renewable energy advocacy organization. “If its clauses ever become legislated, they would literally mandate the use of nuclear energy in Illinois, all the while Speaker Madigan conspires with Exelon to not fix the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard law. He might as well have titled it, ‘Forward – Into the Past!” says Kraft.

Beyond the local significance to Illinois, the Resolution is actually a piece of a national program Exelon is orchestrating (with the help of ALEC and others) to keep in operation old nuclear plants which have been losing money for years.

Exelon is the primary funding source for “Nuclear Matters,” a pro-nuclear advocacy organization formed in March with a 2-week flurry of full-page ads in the New York Times. It is also a partner with Entergy, another nuclear utility, in the formation and funding of the “Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.” Exelon’s CEO Christopher Crane has just recently been named head of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the trade and lobbying arm of the nuclear industry.

Together, along with groups like ALEC, these entities are putting together a concerted national program to not only promote the failed nuclear industry, but front for the coal industry under the smokescreen of complying with upcoming federal greenhouse gas standards, to ensure that the centralized, baseload concept of electricity service prevails, and efficiency and renewable energy is marginalized.

(As reported at Salon.com, renewables have just suffered a major defeat in Ohio. An environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, opposing the 20-year license extension sought by FirstEnergy at its problem plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor near Toledo on the Lake Erie shore, contends that renewables, such as wind power and solar photovoltaics, combined with energy storage, can readily replace the 908 Megawatt-electric reactor.)

One of the facets of this effort is halting and reversing state RPS and efficiency standard laws, as ALEC has been attempting, and as Speaker Madigan and Exelon have now done in Illinois with the passage of HR1146 and the failure to fix the Illinois RPS law.

NEIS has prepared a backgrounder ("What's Wrong with HR1146"), as well as an action alert of creative ideas for countering this resolution. If you live in IL, please take direct action. If you know anyone living in IL, please forward this action alert to them.