Bailing Out The Exelon Nuclear Plants?

My problems with this. 

1) This is going to support the Exelon structure.

2) No money is mandated into maintenance and updating plant equipment.

3) At the end of it, you still get stuck with these obsolete dogs.

Honestly, you'd be better throwing in a few more bucks for new nuclear plants.

Exelon wants $2 a month more for nuclear plants

SRINGFIELD — Electricity users would have to dip into their pockets a little more to help cover costs of Exelon's nuclear power plants under legislation unveiled Thursday that the influential corporation maintained would save jobs and keep service steady and reliable.Exelon is backing the proposal because it could prop up what it says are three money-losing nuclear plants that produce a relatively clean energy compared to other sources of power. Opponents question whether Exelon would get an unnecessary bailout when a trio of its other nuclear plants are in the black, and supporters of a separate bill prefer a broader approach that would build up renewable resources. 

Where the state ends up on the issue will play out in the months ahead as the spring session unfolds, with companies like Exelon wielding clout at the Capitol through campaign contributions to lawmakers. 

The Exelon legislation comes out of a joint report rolled out last month by multiple state agencies charged with examining the impact of closing nuclear plants and potential ways to keep them open. House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, backed the resolution that led to the report. 

Under the Exelon-backed bill, residential customers would pay about $2 more a month, a figure Exelon calculated based on the average bills of customers of Commonwealth Edison and Ameren, which serves much of Downstate. The average residential customer's bill from ComEd, for example, was about $90 in January, the company said. 

The Citizens Utility Board questioned how Exelon, which has made billions of dollars in profit, can ask electricity users to shell out more money to help pay for money-losing plants when "consumers have already paid for those plants several times over."

David Kolata, CUB's executive director, estimated ComEd and Ameren electricity users would pay an additional $300 million a year.

Exelon executive Joseph Dominguez did not directly answer questions about how the legislation may boost Exelon's bottom line and suggested that helping to keep the plants open would benefit consumers.

"What it will help us do is not make profits but avoid losses that otherwise would be treated by retiring plants," said Dominguez, the company's senior vice president for governmental and regulatory affairs and public policy. "The right way to look at this is the consequence of losing the plants."

Under questioning, Dominguez acknowledged the legislation does not include a guarantee that Exelon would keep open the money-losing plants at Byron, the Quad Cities and Downstate Clinton. But he said the company likely would commit to keeping those plants open during the five-year life of the proposal. Such an expiration date is a common clause in Springfield, giving lawmakers a chance to gauge whether changes should be made or a law should go off the books.

The measure would require the state's independent Illinois Power Agency, which buys power on behalf of utility customers, to set up an auction beginning in 2016 to establish the lowest price for low-carbon energy credits. The new money collected from consumers would help pay for those credits, which ComEd and Ameren would purchase. The subsidy would ensure that 70 percent of the electricity the two companies deliver is low-carbon energy.  

If ComEd and Ameren paid too much for the power, based on market value, customers could get a rebate on their bills. Annual increases would be limited to about 2 percent of rates from six years ago, officials said. 

Under the proposal, Exelon would compete against other energy producers that emit little or no carbon dioxide, including wind, solar and clean-coal firms. Critics questioned whether the bill was tilted to favor Exelon.  

Dominguez said Exelon would "hope to be the lowest bidder" but would expect competition to be stiff. 

Democratic Rep. Larry Walsh, whose Will County district includes many nuclear plant workers, said the proposal probably would end up as part a compromise bill negotiated with proponents of separate legislation designed to boost clean energy use and jobs in Illinois.

Walsh, the Exelon bill's lead sponsor, maintained closing the nuclear power would hurt reliability and cost jobs." "If that power were to go away, where's it going to be made up at?" Walsh asked. 

The $31 billion company, the largest owner of nuclear power plants in the country, has been lobbying for positions that would reward it for not emitting greenhouse gases. More than half of the power produced in Illinois comes from coal and natural gas plants and renewable energy....