With thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue at stake, some northeast Ohio political leaders are trying to get rate increases approved for the region’s nuclear power plants.
Perry Nuclear Power Station is in Lake County. It and Davis Besse in Ottawa County are likely to shut down unless First Energy Solutions can raise prices. The company says it can’t compete on cost with natural-gas power generation. But regulators have said no to the hikes. Lake County Commissioner Jerry Cirino is trying to get state legislators to mandate financial support to keep the plants in business. “If we had a company that wanted to come to Lake County or Ohio to bring 700 people that would create other peripheral jobs and spend $65-million dollars a year in the community, they’d be tripping over themselves to bring that company here.”
Both state and federal regulators have said that a rate increase is unwarranted.
