Coal to Nuclear: Eastlake Power Plant
Cities carry the obligation to provide services to their citizens at cost. Here is the thing about electricity production: it is a "public utility". We do realize that profit is the extraction of value from an economic process.
What an opportunity we have been provided in Eastlake! The Eastlake Power Plant was a coal fired power plant owned and operated by FirstEnergy Solutions (yes, that one) that was scheduled to be decommissioned as of 2021. This was allegedly due to market conditions.
Cities carry the obligation to provide services to their citizens at cost. Here is the thing about electricity production: it is a "public utility". We do realize that profit is the extraction of value from an economic process. Why are shareholders allowed to line their pockets while we citizens breathe the consequences? How does a company embroiled in scandal still own property anywhere within the state? Eminent domain, or simply occupy the facility with the police.
This conversion is being tested in Wyoming and Colorado, but construction is rumoured not to begin until 2026. Hear me out, why wait? We are talking about many high paying jobs that will bring professionals to our community. Like the construction jobs and then future engineering jobs would not provide a boost to our local economy. Here is a study discussing the jobs that this conversion could bring to the area. Note that the study compares active coal plant vs. active nuclear plant, whereas the FirstEnergy Eastlake Plant is inactive as of 2021.
It is not like the city runs at a deficit, however, we definitely could not afford a whole nuclear plant as it stands today. Where do we find the funding? It would require a county effort. Painesville already has their own electric public utility company that we could lean on for distribution maintenance and line construction. I bet we could find a way to generate the "demand" for a nuclear plant within the county. Yet another chance for us to power a passenger rail in our major metros. Imagine a line running from Downtown Willoughby east to the Great Lakes Mall powered by our local engineers! We are making it even easier for them to boost our economy.
Why did we need to choose between different distributors when we know that cost should primarily center around infrastructure required to deliver the electricity. How does it make sense for it to be cheaper for me to buy my electricity via the Illuminating Company (whose parent company is FirstEnergy) but distributed by a company in Pennsylvania?
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