The Department of Energy has until March or so to hammer out the details of a tax credits program for financially-troubled nuclear power plants after President Joe Biden signed a long-awaited infrastructure package into law Monday.
The bipartisan bill, which opens up around $6 billion in federal funding over a five-year period to provide tax credits to nuclear plant operators, also instructs DOE to establish a bidding process for allocating that cash. During a virtual press conference Nov. 10, the agency said it would have around 120 days — or four months — to put those credit auctions together.
More information on the bidding process could come out “in the coming weeks and months,” a DOE official said at the time.
A spokesperson for the House Appropriations Committee told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing last week that the committee doesn’t have to take further action to make the $6 billion allocated in the infrastructure package available.
A potential federal bailout for nuclear power comes at a good time for the industry as power plants are closing down at a rapid pace. The Palisades plant in Michigan is the next reactor on the chopping block in early 2022, and New York’s Indian Point Energy Center shut down for good at the end of April. Exelon’s Byron and Dresden plants in Illinois were also supposed to go dark this fall, but were saved in September by a state-level stimulus package to the tune of around $700 million.
