Five Democrats in the US senate introduced a bill on Thursday that would allow some existing nuclear power plants to receive a tax credit equal to an incentive already given to operators of wind power turbines.
The bill, led by senator Ben Cardin, provides a production tax credit of $15 per megawatt hour for existing nuclear plant owners or operators in states such as New York, Illinois, and Pennsylvania which have deregulated power markets. Mr Cardin’s state, Maryland, has two commercial power reactors at Exelon Corp’s Calvert Cliffs nuclear stations.
“America needs to reduce our reliance of fossil fuels, so it is imperative that we keep these reactors operating safely while we continue to work on demand reduction, renewables, energy storage, and transmission grid resiliency,” Mr Cardin said in a statement.
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