We are writing today with great news. Yesterday, we won the crucial first round to stop the Trump administration’s plan to bail out nuclear power and coal.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) unanimously rejected Trump’s proposal to waste billions of our dollars on dirty energy companies. This is another stunning defeat for Trump’s backwards energy agenda. After taking an extra 28 days to consider the evidence – and the mountain of public comments – FERC determined that the closure of nuclear and coal power plants is not a threat to our electricity system and there is no “just and reasonable” basis for upending decades of energy policies just to prop up dirty energy companies.
Activists like you played an essential role in this decisive victory. For over a year, we have been on the front lines, and time after time, you and other NIRS supporters have responded: signing petition after petition, making your voices heard, and demanding real, clean energy solutions for our country.
In total, NIRS submitted 25,371 comments from ordinary people to FERC – not counting thousands more who signed petitions since last week, which we were planning to submit to FERC today. FERC clearly saw the writing on the wall, with an overwhelming number of people saying “NO” to nuclear and coal, and a mountain of evidence that Trump’s bailout would be bad for the country.
But, unfortunately, this isn’t the end of the road. The nuclear industry is not giving up, and FERC’s decision still leaves the door open to other bailout schemes being promoted across the country: the industry is still pushing states like Connecticut, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania for billions of dollars in nuclear subsidies; and the companies that run the country’s regional energy markets are pushing bailout schemes that FERC could still go along with.
NIRS has been taking on these fights for four years now, and we will be there to see them through. And FERC’s decision yesterday gives us a lot to build on.
So today, we celebrate – and thank you for all of your activism and vigilance and support!