Nuclear power plant owner FirstEnergy Solutions (FES), a subsidiary of Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp., won the right to continue operating and paying bills in the company’s first day hearing in federal bankruptcy court, Cleveland.com reports. FES has asked the U.S. Department of Energy for help to keep its nuclear and some coal-fired power plants in business (see our April 17, 2018 blog post). In a recent article in The Washington Post, Jack M. Tracy II, head of legal analysis at New York research firm Debtwire, said the FES request will test “whether Trump’s policies are having an effect on the coal industry and bringing it back.” Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp. is one of FirstEnergy’s main suppliers of coal; Murray spokesperson Gary Broadbent “blames much of FirstEnergy’s trouble on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [FERC] for not complying with the Trump administration’s plan to invoke the Federal Power Act,” the Herald-Star reports. Broadbent said further closings of nuclear and coal-fired power plants will cause electricity costs to “skyrocket.” For more, read the full Cleveland.com, Washington Post, and Herald-Star articles.
FirstEnergy Solutions continuing to operate while waiting for DOE response
