The price to keep Pennsylvania’s nuclear plants operating for at least a half-dozen more years is expected to be $500 million annually, according to the sponsor of a rescue bill introduced in the state House yesterday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. House Bill 11, sponsored by Rep. Tom Mehaffie, R-Dauphin, is designed to create a new revenue source for nuclear power plants by rewarding energy generators that do not emit carbon dioxide, a powerful greenhouse gas. Nuclear plants are struggling in regional electricity markets to compete against new, efficient plants that burn low-cost natural gas, although some are more vulnerable than others. Two of Pennsylvania’s five nuclear plants have announced plans to close years before their operating licenses expire: Three Mile Island near Harrisburg later this year and Beaver Valley in Shippingport in 2021. Mehaffie said that the proposal would increase a typical monthly residential electric bill by $1.77. If all of the state’s nuclear plants closed, he said, a typical residential electric bill would be expected to increase by $2.39 per month.
