Public Citizen said Monday it will ask the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a rehearing on its decision last week to approve the $110 million sale of the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York from Entergy to Exelon.
Public Citizen in October asked FERC to reject the application for the sale, claiming it will adversely affect New York’s power market. Entergy had planned to close the plant, but agreed to sell it in August, after the New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC) approved Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Clean Energy Standard, which is expected to pay upstate nuclear power plant operators nearly $8 billion in energy subsidies over the program’s lifetime.
FERC approved the transaction on Wednesday, saying it would not adversely affect competition. The regulator also said Public Citizen’s decision to focus on Cuomo’s zero-emission-credit (ZEC) program meant the challenge fell outside the scope of the FitzPatrick review.
The transaction also requires approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the NYPSC (which approved the sale in November), and the Department of Justice.
Public Citizen Energy Program Director Tyson Slocum said in a phone interview Monday that the zero-emission-credit program is essential to the transaction, which Exelon has stated in the past. Public Citizen has argued that Entergy and Exelon failed to provide adequate impact analysis to FERC for the deal, disregarding the economic impact of the credit on the transaction and the market.
“What they ran was a completely fictitious market analysis,” Slocum said. “The ZEC transforms the market.”
Slocum said Public Citizen will prepare its rehearing request on FERC’s decision in the next few weeks but anticipates a denial, which would allow the group to seek a petition for review in a federal court. The group will also pursue a Federal Power Act Section 206 complaint, a separate challenge arguing that FERC is in conflict with the legislation.
