A group of Maryland environmental activists Monday protested Congress’s proposed tax credits aimed at saving economically-troubled nuclear power plants, according to a press release.
Activists from Beyond Nuclear and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) among others delivered letters Monday to Reps. Jamie Raskin and John Sarbanes (both D-Md.) during a “national day of action” organized by NIRS, the enviro group said in an emailed statement. The letter, signed by 248 organizations, urges Raskin and Sarbanes to oppose the roughly $6 billion in federal funds proposed for nuclear plant subsidies in Congress’s bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The members should “reject all proposals to subsidize nuclear energy and to instead invest in a just and equitable transition to safe, clean renewable energy,” NIRS said in the Monday statement.
If it becomes law, the infrastructure package will direct the Department of Energy to “establish a process” for evaluating bids and allocating subsidies to nuclear power plants that post a net operating loss. That’s good news for the nuclear industry, but a bailout would be too little too late for some plants. The Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan is slated to close early next year, and New York’s Indian Point Energy Center shut down back in April.
The House should vote on the infrastructure bill later this month. The measure passed the Senate in August.
