At PPL Electric Utilities, we’ve been watching with great interest the debate surrounding the future of nuclear power.
Proposed legislation currently circulating within the Pennsylvania General Assembly would require electric utilities to purchase as much as 50 percent of customer demand from nuclear energy as part of a new mandate under Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act.
We’re asking the General Assembly to seriously consider the broad impact and the unintended ramifications this aggressive proposal would have on all of our 1.4 million customers.
The conversation surrounding how to achieve long-term market-based solutions to reducing carbon is essential to Pennsylvania’s energy future. Our parent company, Pennsylvania-based PPL Corporation, supports efforts to advance a cleaner energy future and has committed reducing its carbon emissions 70 percent from 2010 levels by 2050. Additionally, PPL Electric Utilities has begun to undertake several projects that promote greater incorporation and growth of carbon-free energy sources, such as solar, onto our grid.
No one disputes that nuclear energy is carbon-free, but don’t confuse narrow nuclear subsidy proposals with efficient and effective economy-wide, market-based efforts to move the state toward a low carbon future.
This proposal, if adopted, will make Pennsylvania less competitive, impacting every electric customer in Pennsylvania and raising the average price of electricity in the state for years to come. We have estimated that our customers, alone, will pay $140 million more each year to rescue a single energy source that already benefits from an existing robust market.
If electricity customers are asked to bear this burden, customers should expect, and legislators should require that regulators have oversight. As a regulated utility, PPL Electric Utilities is required to open its books to the state’s Public Utility Commission and demonstrate a financial need before we can adjust the rates we charge to customers. Nuclear plant owners who are asking our state government to give them customer-funded financial assistance should be required to do the same. Recent draft proposals do not include this much needed requirement and also provide a subsidy for plants that are profitable.
This issue has been the focus of limited discussions for well over two years. It is only recently that proponents have turned up the heat on the General Assembly to act swiftly. Lawmakers should not fall for the “crisis” label that has been intentionally created by the bill proponents.
We’re asking lawmakers to take their time and properly vet this issue through the process — hold hearings, call in all stakeholders and most importantly, demand numbers from those advocating for this measure. Consider seeking independent audits or financial verification from outside resources available to the General Assembly.
In the end, lawmakers need to strongly consider whether hiding a nuclear bailout in customers’ electricity bills is necessary and the best course to moving Pennsylvania forward.
The sight of ospreys nesting at the overlook by Wallenpaupack Dam has become something local residents have come to expect for more than 20 years.
So when the nesting platform originally put up by PPL Electric Utilities came down during a wind storm early in 2018, Meg Welker knew what had to be done.
The senior environmental professional, who has been with PPL for 22 years and has lived near the overlook for more than three decades, quickly began making arrangements for a new nesting platform.
Hours after the new platform went up in April, the ospreys were back, and Welker couldn’t be happier.
“I believe it’s our obligation to support the communities we work in because we’re truly a part of them,” Welker said. “And this is such a nice place to work.”
Welker has spent much of her career at PPL being a steward of the environment. A graduate of Penn State University with a degree in environmental resource management, she is responsible for protecting wetlands, watersheds and waterways at PPL projects that are designed to improve service and reliability to the company’s 1.4 million customers.
She has become the local contact for various state and federal agencies. She’s a board member of the Lake Wallenpaupack Watershed Management District, a nonprofit organization set up to protect the lake.
She helped lead the effort to add the osprey platform at Wallenpaupack in 1997. In the two decades since, about 40 chicks have hatched at the location. PPL has worked with the state Game Commission to build similar platforms throughout the utility’s service territory.
The platforms provide the once-threatened birds with an alternative spot to nest so they don’t have to build nests on high-voltage transmission line structures.
Welker said she’s never felt more proud of the work that PPL does, particularly its environmental efforts, which also include recycling old wooden utility poles, making use of a fleet of hybrid electric vehicles, and giving out thousands of trees to schools, community organizations and local governments.
“The investment we’re putting into our grid and what we do to get projects completed is critical to the success of our customers, our communities and our company,” she said. “And what we’re doing in the environmental realm is essential to getting that work done.
“And being able to do all of that in an environmentally responsible way … you just have to feel good going home at night.”
When Jeff Luzenski looks back on his days as a child growing up in the Lehigh Valley, he can’t recall ever seeing an osprey or peregrine falcon flying overhead.
So the sight of ospreys on nesting platforms at various spots in Pennsylvania, and falcons feeding their young in center city Allentown, gives him a sense of pride.
Luzenski, a 34-year employee of PPL Electric Utilities, played a significant role in fostering the resurgence of both ospreys and falcons in the region. As a senior environmental professional, he is focused largely on protecting and improving the environment.
During the past 25 years, Luzenski has worked with many organizations and agencies, including Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and Wildlands Conservancy, to support osprey and peregrine falcon restoration efforts. During that time, a number of nesting platforms and boxes have been added at various locations in our service territory.
The idea of building nesting platforms is to give birds a safe place to nest and an alternative to other spots they sometimes select to nest, including the top of utility poles or towers. Those areas present some risk because of high-voltage lines.
Inside a nesting box on the 21st floor of our headquarters, three eggs being incubated by a pair of peregrine falcons hatched earlier this year. The birds are now flying and learning to hunt on their own.
Luzenski also helped lead the Lehigh Valley Peregrine Project, a community effort to release young peregrine falcons from the top of our Tower Building in center city Allentown, with the hopes that the falcons would come back to the area.
“You never saw that when I was a kid,” Luzenski said. “Now, routinely, I’ve seen bald eagles near my house, falcons and ospreys. Just getting a glimpse of one of those birds is something that everyone can enjoy and appreciate.”
The experience with both projects has helped Luzenski stay in tune with the changing environment, which is important in his role in helping to carry out PPL’s environmental stewardship.
“I like the outdoors, personally,” Luzenski said. “And doing what I do for PPL helps make sure everyone is doing the right thing and being environmentally responsible.
“It’s great to know that PPL played a role in helping these beautiful birds. We’ve brought together a lot of people to make a difference. It’s been very rewarding.”
