CLEAN JOBS FOR PA APPLAUDS STATE LAWMAKERS FOR IDENTIFYING LEGISLATIVE SOLUTION TO PROPERLY VALUE NUCLEAR ENERGY 

Calls On Members of House and Senate to Join Effort to Update
Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Law to Include Nuclear Energy

HARRISBURG, PA. (Feb. 4, 2019) – Leaders of the Clean Jobs for Pennsylvania (CJFP) coalition today praised a bi-partisan initiative that would use an existing state law – the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act (AEPS) – as the legislative vehicle to recognize the environmental attributes of nuclear energy. Doing so is projected to protect the state’s existing nuclear fleet, including Three Mile Island, from premature closures. The coalition is urging legislators to join State Senators Ryan Aument, Lisa Boscola, Mike Folmer, John Gordner, Elder Vogel, Jr. and John Yudichak and State Representative Thomas Mehaffie in co-sponsoring this important legislation.

Despite the fact that Pennsylvania’s nuclear power plants are the state’s largest source of electricity and provide 93 percent of the Commonwealth’s zero-carbon electricity, nuclear energy has been excluded from Pennsylvania’s AEPS program since its creation in 2004. Unless the state legislature addresses this inequity, Pennsylvania will lose the state’s nuclear energy industry putting the 16,000 in-state full-time jobs supported by the industry in jeopardy.

In their co-sponsor memo to colleagues the prime sponsors of the legislation detail how allowing Pennsylvania’s nuclear power plants to succumb to failed energy market policies will cost Pennsylvanians $4.6 billion annually. That total includes losing almost $2 billion annually in state GDP, almost $2 billion annually in avoided cost of carbon and other pollutants, and $788 million annually in avoided electricity cost increases.

“We agree with the co-sponsors who say that Pennsylvania cannot stand by and watch all these benefits disappear as nuclear power plant after nuclear power plant prematurely retires,” said CJFP coalition co-Chair and Dauphin County Commissioner Mike Pries. “We cannot wait for Washington policymakers or the PJM to fix what they have acknowledged is a flawed energy market.  It’s time for Pennsylvania to take matters into its own hands and we thank these lawmakers for taking this critical first step.”

By putting nuclear generation on equal footing with the 16 other forms of environmentally beneficial electric generation already included in Pennsylvania’s AEPS program, Pennsylvania can ensure it continues to provide the jobs, economic, environmental and grid resilience benefits for years to come.  

ABOUT CLEAN JOBS FOR PENNSYLVANIA 

Clean Jobs for Pennsylvania (CJFP) is a diverse coalition of business, labor, environmental, education, civic and local elected leaders who have come together to support the continued operation of Three Mile Island and the Commonwealth’s four other nuclear plants and the benefits they provide to their local communities. For more information about the coalition, please visit cleanjobsforpennsylvania.com. CJFP formed on the heels of the announcement that TMI would close in September 2019 without necessary policy reform. The coalition has also seen a strong response from concerned citizens on social media. Clean Jobs for Pennsylvania’s Facebook page already has more than 16,000 followers, and 5,700+ people follow the coalition on Twitter. 

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