Failed Reactors Bailed Out by Taxpayers

Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2019

State governments have approved a new generation of public tax giveaways to the private nuclear industry. In Ohio, after originally announcing plans to close and file for bankruptcy, FirstEnergy Solutions, owners of Davis-Besse and Perry reactors, spent $30 million on lobbying. On July 23rd it was offered $1 billion of Ohio ratepayer/taxpayer funds to keep the failed reactors afloat, when Governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill 6. Since 2016, the nuclear industry has won nearly $15 billion in state taxpayer bailouts, including $7.6 billion in New York in 2016, $2.3 billion in Illinois in 2016, $2.7 billion in New Jersey in 2018, and $1.7 billion in Connecticut in 2018. There is currently no federal giveaway program, since Energy Secretary Rick Perry refused to deliver a federal handout. In June he concluded that the Energy Dept. doesn’t have “regulatory or statutory ability” to create tax credits, tax breaks or other incentives for coal and nuclear reactors. Sec. Perry did remind state legislatures that they have this authority. —Columbus Dispatch, July 23; Environmental Working Group, July 8; Energy and Policy Institute, April 11, 2019; and New York Times; June 1, 2018