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Letter to the Editor: Media Portrayed Opposition to Nuke Plant Bailouts Oversimplified, Incomplete

An otherwise excellent Chicago Tribune summary of the proposed Comprehensive Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CCEJA) was marred by the oversimplified one-line explanation for critics’ opposition to continued Exelon nuclear plant bailouts.  While legitimate to question and oppose bailing out a profitable corporate welfare queen like Exelon, the real reasons are more numerous and complex.

The $694 million Exelon bailout proposed in CCEJA is nearly twice the amount found financially defensible by Governor Pritzker’s $250,000 independent audit commissioned earlier this year.  What’s the justification for increasing ratepayer abuse? Read more

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ILLINOIS ENERGY TRANSFORMATION #25: NUCLEAR BAILOUT UPDATES – The “Bailout Blues Show”  Continues

Sept. 3, 2021

This originally was going to be a “summer summary” of NEIS’ work.  However, the importance and prominence of the proposed nuclear bailouts at both the Illinois-State and federal levels argued for a delay of that idea, and an update report to people committed to safe-energy and a less-nuclear world and the negative effects of the continued “nuclear hostage crisis” on our carbon-free/nuclear-free future.

ILLINOIS ENERGY BILL MOVES FORWARD, STILL IN LIMBO:

The omnibus energy bill (SB18, amended; now SB1751, House Amendment 1, no link available yet) continues to lurch forward with the surprise Senate passage on Tuesday Sept. 2 in the wee hours Read more

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PRESS RELEASE: 240+ Organizations Sign Letter Opposing Subsidies for Nuclear Power in Infrastructure Bills

WASHINGTON, D.C — Over 240 organizations, including Friends of the Earth, Indigenous Environmental Network, Food & Water Watch, The League of Women Voters, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Public Citizen, Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) and hundreds more sent a letter to Congressional leaders telling them to reject all proposals in infrastructure bills that subsidize nuclear energy, and to instead invest in a just and equitable transition to safe, clean renewable energy.

The letter opposes proposals in both the energy legislation for the larger reconciliation package (S.2291/H.R.4024) and the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which together would grant up to $50 billion to prop up aging, increasingly uneconomical nuclear reactors for the next decade.

The letter highlights climate, economic, and environmental justice concerns with proposed nuclear subsidies, in addition to evidence that nuclear power is too dirty, dangerous, expensive, and slow to be a viable solution to the climate crisis.

All of the proposed subsidies (up to $50 billion) are predicted to go to reactors owned by only eight corporations and located in only 19 counties across eight states. Over 50 organizations in each of these states – Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas – signed the letter. Read more

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ILLINOIS ENERGY TRANSFORMATION #24: “…and when the rivers don’t flow?….then what?…”

In previous installments of this series, NEIS has attempted to keep the size down to 1-2 pages max.  This issue it too important to confine to that limit.

A major paper was recently released that raises a serious performance issue for those in favor of continued use of nuclear power.  It comes at a critical time when states are debating enormous bailouts of existing nuclear plants that would delay implementation and continue the underfunding of renewable energy, efficiency, storage and transmission upgrades; and entertaining the fanciful promises of a future generation of nuclear reactors being pitched as “solutions” to the climate crisis.

The report, “Increase in frequency of nuclear power outages due to changing climate,” (Nature Energy | VOL 6 | July 2021 | 755–762 | www.nature.com/natureenergy)[1] reveals the vulnerability of nuclear power plants to the extreme weather conditions of the ever-escalating climate crisis.  The Report found:

“In the 1990s, the average frequency of environment-induced outages (full and partial) was around 0.2 outage per reactor-year, but since then it has increased by around eightfold, reaching an average of 1.5 in the past decade.” (emphasis ours). [1] Read more

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THE CORROSIVE EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR BAILOUTS

THE CORROSIVE EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR BAILOUTS

David Kraft, Director, Nuclear Energy Information Service

July 15, 2021

Nuclear bailouts represent the government’s way of turning people into utility ATM machines.  At the state level, that would be ratepayers.  At the federal level, that would be the U.S. taxpayers.  It’s always easier to spend somebody else’s money, especially when trying to score political points with voters and donors.

Nowhere is this more in evidence than in the states of Illinois and Ohio, characterized by not only outrageous nuclear bailouts imposed on ratepayers, but also horrendous amounts of political corruption essential and intrinsic to sealing the deals. Read more

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STATEMENT ON NEW EXELON BAILOUT RANSOM PROPOSAL

Illinois Legislators should oppose Exelon’s current $700 million nuclear ransom demand.  You can’t build an energy future by bailing out the past.

Recent revelations [1] that Exelon’s business partner EDF is curbing its enthusiasm for the creation of Exelon’s spin-off company “SpinCo” should warn Illinois legislators about the danger of granting the recently proposed nuclear bailout [4].

Earlier this year Exelon announced it would be splitting off and segregating its money-losing, unprofitable nuclear reactors into a separate entity called “SpinCo.” Read more

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STATEMENT ON ILLINOIS LEGISLATIVE INACTION ON ENERGY LEGISLATION

STATEMENT ON ILLINOIS LEGISLATIVE INACTION

 ON ENERGY LEGISLATION

Tick…tick…tick…

Everything in its own time.  Or so the old saying goes.  The Illinois Legislature demonstrated that old maxim once again by failing to vote before the end of Spring session on a critical piece of energy legislation designed to create Illinois’ energy future.

The Planet has its own schedule, too.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) frantically warned in October 2018 that we humans have at best 10 years left – until 2028 – to totally revamp our energy and economic systems, or risk an irreversible climate crisis that could threaten the very functioning of civilization as we have come to know it.  In this regard it’s important to recall another old maxim:  Nature bats last.

Like the grasshoppers in Aesop’s Fable, we, the Governor, and the Legislature ignore this imminent peril, and instead, content ourselves to “Count the victories,” as House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Hillside, advised yesterday as the clock stroked midnight.  Well, looks like it will now be easier to get to-go cocktails.  Come 2029 and beyond, we will need them, and much more. Read more

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TAIL WAGGING THE DOG AGAIN ON ENERGY LEGISLATION

Sunday, May 30, 2021

The last phase of Exelon’s “Nuclear Hostage Crisis” is playing out in the final legislative negotiations over a comprehensive state energy future.  Once again Exelon and its labor allies are the tail attempting to wag the dog by pushing for unrealistic nuclear bailouts as ransom for a clean energy future.

STOP Exelon’s “Nuclear Hostage Crisis”

Exelon’s 11th-hour intransigence comes after months of intense, painstaking negotiations among numerous interests to craft a comprehensive energy bill that sought to expand renewable energy, protect communities and workers adversely affected by plant closures, expand job and business equity and just-transitions, and address the climate crisis.

This last-minute impasse cause by Exelon and its labor allies threaten all of those goals. Read more

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NEIS ACTION ALERT! Illinois’ Energy Legislation Due for Completion This Week (May 10th, 2021)

Illinois’ Energy Legislation Due for Completion This Week

Your LAST Chance to Tell Them What You Want!

7 competing bills; over 3,500 pages of competing legislation!

This week (May 10, 2021)  the Illinois Legislature will determine the energy fate of Illinois for years to come.

We have long understood that the Illinois energy legislation that will be acted upon in 2021 will be an amalgam of pieces from the numerous proposed bills.  Currently these bills cumulatively amount to between 3,000-4,000 pages of text.  Except for discussion about bailouts, nuclear power is again excluded from detailed examination, significant nuclear-related issues have been ignored, and nuclear critics have been left out of direct discussions. Read more

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ILLINOIS ENERGY TRANSFORMATION #15: “When (and why) nuclear supporters change their mind….”

NEIS sent the following today to Illinois state and federal legislators, as well as to its entire media list.  We share it with you now:

We hope that this latest installment of our energy transformation series finds you well, and as you wind down towards the end of the Spring legislative session, that your work is successful.

Former NRC Chair Greg Jaczko

We share with you a critically important op-ed that appeared today in the Washington Post, written by the former Chairperson of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) – Dr. Gregory Jaczko.  (before proceeding here, please read his article, “I oversaw the U.S. nuclear power industry. Now I think it should be banned.”).

Currently, there are a number of major pieces of energy legislation before the Legislature:  CEJA, the Exelon Bill, the ComEd/Ameren Bill, Path to 100, maybe more.  Realistically, no single bill from this group will or should pass before the end of this Spring legislative session; and in all probability, a large, omnibus energy bill in the Fall Veto Session is the most likely outcome. Read more

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