Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) has joined the opposition to FirstEnergy Solutions’ request for emergency assistance from the Department of Energy to sustain the company’s nuclear and coal-fired power plants.
“I urge you to follow the law and respect the Federal Power Act, and not attempt to proceed with misusing obscure provisions of law to issue rules to artificially and unnecessarily prop up generators that are no longer competitive,” Markey wrote in a Monday letter to Perry.
In March, FirstEnergy Solutions announced plans to by October 2021 shut down its three nuclear power plants: the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio; the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry, Ohio; and the Beaver Valley Power Station in Shippingport, Pa. The Akron, Ohio, company then declared bankruptcy.
FirstEnergy Solutions subsequently asked Perry to use his emergency rulemaking authority under Section 202(c) the Federal Power Act to order regional power clearinghouse PJM Interconnection to sign contracts that guarantee FirstEnergy’s nuclear and coal plants can fully recover their costs along with a return on their investments.
The Energy Department has not yet ruled on FirstEnergy Solutions’ request. PJM Interconnection opposes the request, and officials from nine states and the District of Columbia last week urged Perry to reject the proposal.
The senator’s letter cited Perry’s May 9 testimony, before the U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, in which the DOE chief said his agency “is looking very closely at (a) number of ways to approach this.” He said, though, that DOE should in this case not apply Section 202(c) the Federal Power Act or the Defense Production Act, which Perry is also reportedly pondering.
