Stop the Millstone Payout Coalition: “We look forward to a rigorous investigation of Millstone’s financial health”
Hartford, CT — Matt Fossen, spokesman for the Stop the Millstone Payout coalition, released the following statement today after it was announced that Governor Dannel Malloy signed an executive order for a joint Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) and Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) investigation of the financial health of the Millstone Nuclear Plant:
“Governor Malloy made the right call today in seeking additional information from Millstone before any decision is made regarding financial support for the company, particularly when all the external evidence suggests the plant is profitable and is obligated to serve the energy markets until at least 2022.
“A number of studies, from the New England States Committee on Electricity (NESCOE) to MIT and others, show that Millstone is the most profitable nuclear plant in the country and that a subsidy would cost consumers hundreds of millions annually. The only claims to the contrary have come from executives of the plant’s parent company, Dominion Energy, and to date they have declined to document actual financial need.
“The critical thing now will be to ensure the quality of the information the state receives about Millstone. It is essential that Dominion fully disclose the plant-level financials of Millstone, otherwise the investigation won’t be truly comprehensive or accurate. In addition, we urge PURA and DEEP to consider any potential action’s impact on Connecticut’s full generation fleet, and to hold a rigorous stakeholder process so that consumers will know exactly what’s at stake and what impact it will have on their household budgets. We are confident that a transparent, data-backed stakeholder process will prove what this coalition has been saying from the start: that Millstone does not need a ratepayer-funded corporate payout.”
