Nuclear power is under attack from a strange direction – the warped wholesale electricity market that has formed in deregulated energy markets across America. Ohio has such a warped market.
Dennis Kucinich, a longstanding opponent to nuclear power, seems to understand the problem better than most.
"Ohio’s economy cannot absorb the shock of taking existing nuclear utilities off-line in a deregulated market," said Kucinich. "The phase-out period must be extended in order to create a soft landing for Ohio’s economy and for the workers."
Ohio is planning to prematurely close its two nuclear plants, Davis-Besse and Perry, because they are being undercut by cheap gas and highly-subsidized renewables. Kucinich, a long-serving Congressman from Ohio, is running for governor and, if he succeeds, plans to work with state lawmakers to re-impose energy utility regulation and prevent these closures.
Kucinich understands the risk of becoming dependent on gas. ‘The gas industry’s price-cutting is only temporary. Once they drive out the competition, we can expect sharp increases, which will adversely affect all Ohio energy consumers, residential, commercial and industrial ratepayers and create a drag on the economy.’
Deregulation might sound good, but it means that the cheapest energy source at the moment wins in the long run, regardless of how unreliable or variable it is, or how short-term the prices may be, or how it stacks up to other sources with respect to emissions.
Most deregulated markets that have closed nuclear plants also have increased costs and have not reduced emissions.
"Deregulation has been a failure in Ohio," Kucinich said. "It has exposed Ohio and its workers to the market distortions of out-of-state predators. It has not in any way, shape or form resulted in benefits for either Ohio utility ratepayers or Ohio businesses."
On top of that, artificial subsidies given to some sources, like wind, over others, like nuclear, further warp the system and do not value all aspects of the energy source. Nuclear has as low a carbon footprint as wind, and lower than all other sources including hydro and solar. Nuclear is the most reliable energy source of all, running 90% of the time and is pretty immune to weather and climate effects.
Kucinich is one of few lawmakers who understand what deregulation has done to the American energy sector.
"Out-of-state energy interests, particularly in gas, have used deregulation of power generation to game the market and have developed price points to undercut Ohio’s largest energy company," noted Kucinich.
"Because of deregulation, there are now 1,600 Ohio jobs at risk - 350 at the W.H. Sammis plant, and 1,200 corporate jobs in Akron." All very high-paying jobs.
And that does not include the other 4,000 jobs in Ohio that support nuclear power. Or the $25 million in state and local taxes that will be lost if these plants close.
Kucinich isn't alone in Ohio's political world. Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan also sees nuclear as essential to the state’s economy.
Ohio electricity generation is still dominated by coal (59%) although gas has grown rapidly over the last ten years, from almost nothing to 25%. The two nuclear plants produce about 17 billion kWhs per year (14% of the state’s total) which is over 80% of the state’s low-carbon generation, five times that of renewables and hydro, which together are only 2% of the total generation (see figure above).
Kucinich also understands that Ohio’s carbon footprint is huge and nuclear is the only bright light in their carbon haze (see figure above).
Nuclear power has the lowest waste-to-energy ratio of any energy source. Ohio has less than 1,500 tons of nuclear waste produced after 40 years of operating these two plants, all safely in pools or dry casks. The coal plants in Ohio produce four times that much toxic waste every day, and that number doesn’t including the carbon and other compounds that go up the stack.
So Kucinich knows that closing nuclear in Ohio means erasing almost all of the state’s gains in addressing climate change with low-carbon sources, as well as just plain pollution.
It’s happened in California, New England and every state that has prematurely closed nuclear in the last few years. The independent system operator in New England, ISO NE, even issued a dire warning about current trends that are closing nuclear plants, growing dependence on natural gas and increasing renewables that are highly variable: "Current trends are pushing the New England power system on a path toward greater fuel-security risks and greater risks of black-outs."
Hopefully, Ohio won’t choose this risky path.
