Tuesday, October 13th 2015

A recent editorial in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette illustrates the recent buzz about maintaining or perhaps even growing Pennsylvania’s nuclear fleet.

“Pennsylvania’s nuclear power plants produce 93 percent of the state’s emission‐free electricity, meaning they are our largest single source of clean electrical energy. They are also the only emissions-free source that can produce large amounts of electricity reliably around the clock.

In 2013, the state’s nuclear power plants prevented 63 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide emissions. This is the amount of emissions that would have poured into our atmosphere if the power generated by nuclear energy had instead been generated by the mix of other sources now producing electricity in Pennsylvania. It also is equivalent to what would be released in a year by some 12 million passenger cars — more than twice as many as are registered in the commonwealth.

Beyond their environmental benefits, nuclear-power plants deliver tremendous economic benefits to Pennsylvania. According to a recently released report from the Brattle Group, Pennsylvania’s five nuclear power plants contribute $2.36 billion to the state gross domestic product and directly account for 15,600 full-time jobs.

Nuclear power also is reliable and available around the clock, and it now represents almost 35 percent of Pennsylvania’s electricity generation.”

Join us on October 23rd as Secretary Quigley from the Department of Environmental Protection and  Kathy Robertson, Senior Environmental and Fuels Policy Manager at
Exelon Corporation, discuss impacts of the Clean Power plan in the Commonwealth.