In April 2019, the New Jersey Bureau of Public Utilities (BPU) voted to subsidize the state’s three nuclear power plants to the extent of nearly $300 million a year (about $70/year per residential customer). Without a subsidy, plant owner Exelon Generation had threatened to close the plants, saying they could no longer compete with other subsidized “renewable” power sources. In choosing to grant a subsidy, the BPU “ignored recommendations from its own staff, a board-hired consultant, and others [green groups],” according to the NJ Spotlight News. Although the subsidy was granted through issuance of a “zero emission certificate,” the decision was almost immediately challenged in court by green advocates.
In a ruling on March 19, a three-judge court of appeals upheld that decision, in a “win-win” victory for Exelon Generation and consumers alike. In a substantial, 47-page decision, the court rejected arguments by greenies that indirect costs — for spent fuel and other “market risks” — should not be considered in deciding the plants’ profitability!
The court’s decision “may make it more likely the nuclear plants will continue to obtain subsidy until 2050,” NJ Spotlight News says, “an assumption implicit in the state’s Energy Master Plan, which projects the units will still be operating then.”
