John Greenwood, moderating a panel with (left-right) Senator Judd Gregg of Ohio, Kristy Hartman, Program Manager at National Conference of State Legislatures, Ryan Fitzpatrick from Thirdway, and Bradley Williams from the Department of Energy.
John Greenwood may appear as an ordinary engineer at Davis-Besse, but when his site was threatened with pre-mature closure he started a ball that rolled into a region-wide campaign for nuclear. John found himself to be a pivotal organizer of a nuclear symposium in Ohio. The symposium, titled Nuclear: What it Means in Ohio, involved collaboration between NAYGN, American Nuclear Society, and American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. The results were impressive. Here’s the story from John’s perspective:
“As an active member of both NAYGN and the Michigan Ohio American Nuclear Society I have been involved with many political issues surrounding our industry. None more important to my community than economic fixes that may secure the operational future of Nuclear in Ohio. Currently, both Perry and Davis-Besse are in threat of pre-mature closure because the market does not reflect their value in the market price. Those important aspects being low environmental impact, tax base in small communities, and diverse, reliable, regionally separated power generation. Many other forms of generation have been compensated for their societal benefits and the Zero Emission Nuclear Credit in Ohio aims to do that for Nuclear Power.
“With the introduction of ZEN into the legislator the media cycle has labeled this effort as a bailout, and not a sensible debate on assigning value to electric generation. With much of the narrative on the importance to these assets residing around local impacts, a group of us decided that an event at the Statehouse was needed. As a member of NAYGN and ANS, I reached out to friends in the industry and non-profit advocacy sector to see what that could be. We decided that a meeting and Nuclear Symposium at the Ohio Statehouse Atrium would help convey that message to our legislators. Over a few short weeks, we were able to raise funds, recruit speakers, and reserve space to deliver our message at the Statehouse. We called the event, Nuclear: What it Means in Ohio , because we don’t believe the average citizen knows what this industry means to the local communities where a plant resides, the impact to the State’s economy, and the resiliency nuclear generation gives to national electric infrastructure.”