First Energy Asking Rick Perry For "Emergency Declaration" (Bailout) For Its Coal & Nuclear Plants

A major electric utility company wants Energy Secretary Rick Perry to rescue its coal and nuclear plants, along with other companies’ plants located in the eastern United States, by declaring an “emergency” in the power industry. The request was widely panned by industry officials and experts, with one company describing the scenario as a “manufactured crisis.”

On Thursday, First Energy Corp. asked the Department of Energy (DOE) to issue an emergency order, claiming in its letter to Perry that “the nation’s security is jeopardized if DOE does not act now” to keep the plants open. The diversity of supply that nuclear and coal-fired units provide to the grid is being lost as more of these plants retire each year, the company said, arguing this will make the electric system less reliable. However, despite FirstEnergy’s sense of urgency, coal and nuclear plants have been shutting down on a regular basis across the United States over the past half-dozen years without any reliability issues.

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In its letter to Perry, FirstEnergy, based in Akron, Ohio, requested that DOE exercise its authority to ensure “just and reasonable cost-based rates” for generators that have 25 days of onsite fuel supply and are not recovering their costs today. FirstEnergy also requested that DOE’s order direct PJM Interconnection Inc., the grid operator for a large portion of the mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions, to “begin negotiating immediately with such generators on the terms of such supply.”

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PJM appeared bewildered by FirstEnergy’s request. “There is no immediate emergency,” the grid operator said. “Nothing we have seen to date indicates that an emergency would result from the generator retirements.”

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https://thinkprogress.org/firstenergy-seeks-emergency-bailout-from-rick-perry-7fcb0fa24185/