The Economist editors opine that Pennsylvania has played a big role in the history of American energy. Coal has been mined there since the 1760s. In 1859, Edwin Drake drilled an oil well that set off the U.S. oil rush. More recently it has produced more natural gas than any other state, except Texas, thanks to the vast Marcellus shale. And though it barely advertises the fact, Pennsylvania is also the U.S. second-largest provider of nuclear energy, despite the incident at Three Mile Island, a nuclear plant that suffered a partial meltdown of one of its reactors in 1979, killing no one but the media hyped scared millions, which impacted the public confidence in nuclear energy for decades.
Today, Pennsylvania is again at the center of a shift in the energy industry and Three Mile Island is caught up in it. An abundance of natural gas piped out of the Marcellus shale in recent years has helped push fuel prices down so sharply that nuclear energy has struggled to compete in PA and in other parts of America because of temporarily high gas prices. The Three Mile Island remaining reactor, Unit One, is one of many fighting to survive economically, but this time its troubles are about electricity prices, not safety.
In America and Europe slumping commodity prices are adding to the burden on nuclear power that began to grow after the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear non-disaster in Japan. The U.S. shale revolution, Europe growing supply of subsidized renewable energy and sluggish electricity demand in both markets have sharply cut wholesale power prices.
That makes it harder for many nuclear plants to cover their running costs, leading their owners to consider shuttering operation until the current glut in natural gas has been exhausted. Perversely, at a time when countries around the world are pledging to cut carbon emissions, such closures often lead to the burning of more fossil fuels.
It is therefore not all economic gloom in the nuclear industry. See new reports.
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