Fight brewing over prospect of nuclear power plant shutdowns
FILE – The Three Mile Island nuclear power generating station in Middletown, Pa., continues to generate electric power with the Unit 1 reactor. TMI was the scene of the 1979 meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor, the worst nuclear power plant disaster in the United states. (AP Photo/Bradley C Bower)
(Harrisburg) — Pennsylvania lawmakers sympathetic to nuclear power plants are making a push for state action to bail out plants whose shutdown is being threatened by their energy company owners.
Four lawmakers released a 44-page report Thursday, calling for action to avoid plants shutting down.
Their ideas include requiring utilities to buy a certain amount of nuclear power or imposing a fee on carbon emissions.
Both ideas are designed to make the cost of nuclear power more competitive, as it faces pressure from a booming natural gas industry.
The prospect of a bailout has drawn opposition from large industrial electricity users, ratepayer advocates, the natural gas industry, the AARP, the National Federation of Independent Business and anti-nuclear power activists.
States including Illinois, New York and New Jersey have approved subsidies.
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