Chairman of Ohio's House Public Utilities Committee Bill Seitz has closed down the hearing that was exploring the possibility of setting up financial support for FirstEnergy's two nuclear power plants in the state. Reportedly, FirstEnergy is continuing efforts to revive the discussion, which FirstEnergy Chief Executive Officer Chuck Jones said is “not a bailout.”
The current proposal would help keep the plants operating with a cost, estimated by the Ohio Consumer's Council, of $57 per year, for the average consumer in a plan that would last 16 years. The total cost of the financial support would be around $5.25 billion.
New York and Illinois have created similar plans to help nuclear power plants stay operational in an age in which electricity prices are being undermined by low prices for natural gas.
The plan would “ensure that these plants are valued for their unique environmental and fuel-diversity benefits that they provide to Ohio,” Jones said.
Seitz said he failed to see enough support in the plan to keep the hearing open. He also said, as quoted by cleaveland.com, that he doubts that more hearings would be scheduled anytime soon “unless something cataclysmic should happen.”
In Ohio, FirstEnergy operates the Davis-Besse Pressurized Water Reactor, which began commercial operations in 1977, and the Perry Unit 1 Boiling Water reactor, which was commissioned in November 1986.