As MDN reported last week, the battle lines have been drawn and both sides have come out swinging in a battle over whether ratepayers should bail out economically failing nuclear power plants (see Battle Lines Drawn in PA to Prevent Nuke Energy Special Treatment). Five nuclear power plants in PA provide 37.5% of all electricity used in the state. There are no “greenhouse gas” emissions from nuclear power, making it attractive for some green radicals–but nuclear waste is a big problem because it never goes away, at least not for thousands of years. You have to store it. The biggest problem with nuclear energy today is that it costs more to produce electricity from nukes than it does from cheap natural gas-fired plants. Nukes can no longer compete. So in a couple of corrupt states–New York and Illinois–the nuke lobby convinced regulatory bodies and the legislatures to pass laws favoring nukes–forcing ratepayers to pay more to keep the nukes going. That battle has now come to Pennsylvania. One of the lobbyists hired by the nuke industry is John Hanger–former Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) under Ed “fast Eddie” Rendell. Hanger briefly ran in the Democrat primary for governor (losing out to Tom Wolf). Hanger ran on a platform of legalizing marijuana–hence our moniker of “pass a joint for John” (see Pass One Last Joint for John Hanger). After he dropped out, Hanger went to work in the Wolf Administration for a period of time, as Wolf’s Secretary of Policy and Planning. But after a year of that Hanger quit and moved out of PA–to be with his wife and daughter in Massachusetts (see John “Severance Tax” Hanger Quits Tom Wolf Administration – Why?). Hanger is back–“advising” (i.e. lobbying) for the nuclear industry in Harrisburg…
