Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu
Comments
James Greenidge
Queens NY
This is demonstrably false.
Moniz has chosen a long-time Union of Concerned "Scientists" wonk as his chief of staff. Despite the UCS's protestations to the contrary, the UCS has been stridently anti-nuclear in their entire ~40 year history. From their anti-nuclear ads in SciAm in the mid-late 70s to their spokesperson's whacky statement on NPR a few years ago, "Nuclear winter is not the answer to global warming" to every policy paper they've ever written that mentions nuclear.
If Moniz actually supported the expansion of nuclear power, he would not have chosen a person with absolutely no energy science credentials and nothing but anti-nuclear and anti-science policy credentials as his chief of staff.
But, hey, go on whistling if it makes you feel better over there in the dark.