Rod Adams reports that the Ohio Division of the American Petroleum Institute, the public relations wing of the oil and gas industry, called on corporate supporters of the legislation to stop misleading Ohio consumers with false information on the economic and environmental consequences of shuttering nuclear power plants in the state. In question are bills before the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee and the state Senate which would grant Zero Emission Credits to FirstEnergy Perry and Davis-Besse nuclear power plants to ensure their continued operation. Given the two nuclear plants represent 14% of the Ohio power, compared to coal at 59%, gas at 23% and renewables at only 4%. This is one more example of what might be an important trend in the long running conversation about energy supply and consumption.
It appears that the oil and gas industry has decided it is time to openly oppose nuclear energy so that it can capture additional energy market share for natural gas. The coal industry, however, never very skilled at public relations, invested resources throughout the 1960s in a lobby group called the National Coal Policy Council (NCPC). That group, an uneasy alignment that included coal mining companies, coal miner unions, railroad companies, coal mine equipment companies and coal burning utility companies, directly challenged the federal government programs designed to make nuclear power an economically viable competitor with coal and natural gas, neither of which are climate friendly. The API recently urged lawmakers in Ohio to reject legislation that would subsidize nuclear power companies, launching an anti-nuclear campaign that marks a return to above board competition in energy markets, writes Rod Adams.
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