After weeks of intra-party squabbling, a trillion dollar infrastructure package, with nuclear power subsidies intact, made it through the House Friday night and was awaiting President Joe Biden’s signature at deadline.
The measure, which passed on a 228-206 vote in the House Friday night, is good news for financially-troubled nuclear plants. The version of the measure on Biden’s desk includes around $6 billion in tax credits for nuclear power, to be auctioned off by the Department of Energy.
The bill passed in the Senate in August.
According to the bill, nuclear plants that post a net operating loss have four months or so after the program is enacted to place bids for a bailout. If selected, they’ll receive tax credits over a four-year period.
Those bailouts would arrive at a time when plants are shutting down faster than they’re going up — Michigan’s Palisades plant is slated to close early next year, and Indian Point in New York shut down in April.
Despite the promised bailouts for nuclear power, the infrastructure legislation doesn’t include any language about nuclear waste. Appropriations bills awaiting final passage and reconciliation in the House and Senate include about $20 million for siting a federal interim storage facility in the 2022 fiscal year. Federal agencies are still running on a continuing resolution that expires after Dec. 3, and lawmakers at deadline had not scheduled votes on any other 2022 appropriations bills.
