N.J. nuclear power subsidy bill could cost $320 million per year

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

#U.S. DECEMBER 15, 2017 / 6:29 PM / UPDATED 21 MINUTES AGO

N.J. nuclear power subsidy bill could cost $320 million per year

Scott DiSavino
3 MIN READ

(Reuters) - Three state senators in New Jersey sponsored a bill that could cost electric ratepayers about $320 million a year to subsidize nuclear reactors that could otherwise be closed.

Last week, Ralph Izzo, chief executive of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc, which operates three reactors in the state at the Salem and Hope Creek plants, said he may be forced to shut the units unless the state provides subsidies.

Izzo, who made his comments at a joint committee session in the New Jersey legislature, said the reactors were profitable now but could start losing money over the next couple of years because cheap natural gas has depressed power prices.

“Unless market prices change, we will no longer be covering our costs, within the next two years,” Izzo said.

The bill is expected to go before a joint legislative committee next Wednesday. If it ultimately passes and becomes law, it would require utilities to recover 0.4 cent per kilowatt hour from customers to cover the cost of the subsidy.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-jersey-nuclear-subisidies/n-j-nuclear-power-subsidy-bill-could-cost-320-million-per-year-idUSKBN1E92Z0

[NNadir]

1. Any money spent by the government to support nuclear energy saves lives.

Last edited Sat Dec 16, 2017, 02:39 PM - Edit history (1)

In New Jersey, we live dangerously close to the radioactive fracking fields and we are fighting natural gas pipelines.

There are no restricitions whatsoever on the dumping of flowback water in Pennsylvania, the border of which is a few miles from my New Jersey home. Some of this flowback water and the stuff it extracts will surely eventually make it to the Delaware River.

Nuclear energy has long been the cleanest and safest form of electrical generation our state, and has typically provided more than 50% of it.

How about we rephrase this whining about "subsidies" as "The State of New Jersey subsidizes clean air and fights climate change?"

No?

How many lives have been saved by the 4.9 billion bucks used to subsidize the crony capitalist billionaire Elon Musk for his useless car for billionaires and millionaires and his equally stupid and useless solar energy company?

Somehow here on the left, subsidizing Musk is an extremely popular and nuclear energy, um, isn't.

This, I take as evidence that ignorance does not reside solely on the right.

Crony capitalism - which is involved with the government subsidizing activities for the good of all citizens - is not always a bad thing. It's called "investing in infrastructure."

But there are wise investments and stupid investments, The 4.9 billion bucks to subsidize the billionaire Elon Musk is not a wise investment.

The investment in retaining our nuclear infrastructure in New Jersey, if not expanding it, is.