Free Republic

Florida Congressman Carlos Curbelo is getting ready to introduce a bill repealing the gas tax in exchange for a carbon tax. It seems rather odd the Miami Republican wants to chart this path, especially after the House GOP overwhelmingly denounced the notion of a carbon tax last week, but Curbelo isn’t backing down from his proposal. He told Miami Herald his proposal is just a “first step” in the discussion. When you ask this question in a vacuum, is any tax detrimental to economic growth? It’s usually going to be yes…But when you put it in context and you...

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The company that owns the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, site of the worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history, announced that it plans to shutter the facility in 2019 unless the state of Pennsylvania steps in to keep it open. The plant near Harrisburg, Pa., hasn’t been profitable for the past five years, according to owner Exelon Corp. The company announced last week that it failed to auction off future energy production from Three Mile Island for the third year in a row. “Today is a difficult day, not just for the 675 talented men and women who have dedicated...

The Reverend Al Sharpton is famous. What he should be is notorious. He has many, many life lowlights. The one that pertains to our conversation here is the 2014 New York Times report that he was at that time $4.5 million short on his federal and New York state taxes. ThatÂ’s a lot. And it brings to mind many thoughts regarding the Reverend. None of which, for normal people, is: What this guy really deserves is a government bailout check. Yet that is what New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo is on the verge of doing for Exelon Generation...

But its chief problem today, says Exelon, is that it can't be price competitive with other forms of electricity generation. The Clinton plant, Exelon says, has lost more than $453 million over the last six years, primarily because its costs to operate are greater than other power plants in the Midcontinent Independent System Operators region, which includes a lot of low-cost natural gas, wind and coal-fired power plants.

DELTA, Pa. (AP) — A couple who got lost in Pennsylvania while driving to New York entered the property of a nuclear plant by cutting a chain at a gate, apparently in a quest to get back on the right road, authorities said. The Chesapeake, Virginia, couple were driving from Baltimore on Friday night when they got onto an access road at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, owned by Exelon. The driver told police he didn’t see two “No trespassing” signs when he cut the chain on the gate, The York Daily Record (http://bit.ly/27XVuF5) reported. Exelon spokeswoman Krista Merkel...

CBS) PEACH BOTTOM TOWNSHIP, Pa. They're on duty and fast asleep, security guards that are supposed to be protecting a major terrorist target in the United States. CBS 2 HD's three-month investigation into the security gap at our nation's nuclear facilities yielded some shocking information and video, and now officials have told CBS 2 first that the contract with the major security firm that hired the guards will be terminated. The video shows the inside of the nation's largest nuclear facilities. There are images of security officers responsible for protecting the plant against a terrorist attack, an attack that could...

About 50 miles outside Washington D.C. is a nuclear power plant that sits on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It’s the sort of place the government has warned is vulnerable to a terrorist attack.But an investigation conducted by The Daily Caller found that anybody can enter the property of the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, drive through the front gates, park not far from a nuclear reactor and have no contact of any kind with security.A reporter and videographer drove from the nation’s capital last Friday to Calvert Cliffs and twice accessed the power plant site. No one...

WASHINGTON — Early in the Obama administration, a lobbyist for the Illinois-based energy producer Exelon Corporation proudly called it “the president’s utility.” And it was not just because it delivers power to Barack Obama’s Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago. ..... David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s longtime political strategist, once worked as an Exelon consultant, and Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago mayor and Mr. Obama’s former chief of staff, helped create the company through a corporate merger in 2000 while working as an investment banker. With energy an increasingly pivotal issue for the Obama White House, a review of Exelon’s relationship with the...

With a midnight deadline looming, the Energy Department has approved three more loan guarantees for solar energy totaling about $3.5 billion. Energy Secretary Steven Chu says the department has completed a $1.5 billion loan guarantee to Arizona-based First Solar Inc. for a 550-megawatt solar farm on federal land in Southern California and $646 million to Exelon Corp. for a 230-megawatt solar plant near Los Angeles. A third project, worth $1.4 billion, will support installation of about 750 solar rooftop panels in 28 states. snip

Why NBC is "in the tank" for Barack Obama: The second largest company in the world is General Electric. GE owns NBC. It also builds nuclear power reactors. Is it any wonder then that NBC favored Obama from the start? According to the LA Times, “Obama is the largest beneficiary of money from companies that have a stake in nuclear energy’s future.” Are we surprised then that Tim Russert prematurely called Obama the Democratic nominee? Or that Russert allowed Obama to ramble on about how great nuclear power is on Meet the Press? Take a look at Obama's Exelon connection...

Health Reform: As major businesses lay out the impact of ObamaCare in dollars and jobs, two things are clear: the costs will be enormous, and the president's vow to focus on "jobs, jobs, jobs" can no longer be believed. Early returns on ObamaCare are coming in, and they belie proponents' claims of job creation and cost reduction. The costs will increase. They are merely being shifted to the states and to America's businesses, large and small. AT&T, the country's largest telephone company, announced Friday it will take a $1 billion first-quarter charge related to the new health care law. The...

Public Discourse: Our energy secretary applauds and encourages companies to leave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its position on climate change. Should any Cabinet secretary, with the powers of government behind him, be threatening U.S. companies? Part of the climate-change mantra is that the debate is over and the science is settled. Just to make sure, environmental groups have sought to pressure businesses to go green or at least keep silent. Now it would appear the whole weight of the federal government is being thrown behind this campaign to coerce and silence real and potential opposition. On Thursday, Steven...

An internal memo produced by Bernstein Research in June described how Mr. Rowe met with investors to rejoice that the House legislation will allow Exelon to rake in additional revenue—by some estimates, up to $1.5 billion a year. Others will pay for this Exelon privilege, of course—notably, Midwestern customers of traditional coal utilities who will see their energy prices double. But hey, all's fair in love and lobbying. ...Let's also not forget that Chicago-based Exelon and employees, including Mr. Rowe, contributed tens of thousands of dollars for their home-city presidential aspirant. And that Mr. Obama's senior adviser, David Axelrod, was...

Exelon Corp. announced $350 million in cost-cutting measures, including the elimination of 500 support staff, as the utility battles economic challenges confronting the energy industry.

NRG Energy, Inc. rejected Sunday a $6.1 billion takeover bid by Exelon Corp., openly challenging whether the Chicago-based parent company of Commonwealth Edison could successfully manage what would have been the country's largest power generation company. Exelon made an unsolicited all-stock offer last month that valued NRG at a 37 percent premium, a figure that dipped to 9.4 percent by the close of the stock market Friday. The offer proved underwhelming to the board of directors at NRG, which unanimously turned down a merger it said "significantly undervalues" the Princeton, NJ-based company. ``Under your proposal, NRG shareholders would own only...

As reported by Ed Morrissey (2008), two years ago when the large nuclear utility Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) wanted Illinois state lawmakers to back a large rate hike two years ago, it took a creative lobbying approach. Its parent company, Exelon Corporation, contracted with ASK Public Strategies, a consulting firm, to a build a fake "front company" that appeared to be devoted to the public interest called Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity (CORE). Then the "front company" (CORE) ran TV ads warning of a “California-style energy crisis” if the rate increase wasn’t approved. The CORE ads, however, failed to disclose in...

'Mystery' man lends support to Obama He's the star of bulletins chronicling Barack Obama's movements, one of only a few non-relatives to consistently get time with the Democratic candidate for president and a trusted confidant who has shared some of the most pivotal moments of Obama's career with him. Yet journalists who have followed Obama's campaign for the better part of two years don't know what he looks like, staffers who have logged countless hours traveling with Team Obama didn't even know he works for the campaign and there's never been a story in a major media outlet about him....

(Crain’s) — Calling for a political consensus on global warming, Exelon Corp. CEO John Rowe says fixing the problem will require the power industry to invest at least $400 billion in new generating facilities and win greater public acceptance of new power plants, including nuclear ones. “The real ‘inconvenient truth’ of climate change is that addressing it won’t be cheap,” Mr. Rowe, referring to former Vice-president Al Gore’s film about global warming, said Tuesday in a speech billed as a “major policy address” at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, D.C. He expressed support for legislation pending on...

Sen. Hillary Clinton accused Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama of suspicious activity with a contributor after being asked in an interview today with ABC's Washington, D.C., affiliate WJLA, why she hasn't disclosed her income tax returns. "Sen. Obama has some questions to answer about his dealings with one of his largest contributors Exelon, a big nuclear power company; apparently he cut some deals behind closed doors to protect them from full disclosure of the nuclear industry," she said. Clinton defended her position not to disclose her income tax returns. "I have said that I will release my tax returns when...