A federation of Illinois labor unions says closing the Byron and Dresden nuclear stations would devastate workers and communities in the state.
An updated report issued by the Brattle Group for the Illinois AFL-CIO says the closures would cost the region thousands of jobs and millions of dollars. Pat Devaney is the treasurer for the organization.
“You're talking about 1500 full-time employees got a good paying job, and also a couple thousand supplemental workers that are brought in, during maintenance, outages and refueling,” Devaney said.
In August, Exelon announced plans to close the two facilities this coming fall. It cited declining energy prices and market rules that affected profitability.
Devaney said other findings include a direct impact to regional sales and tax revenue. And, he said, should the plants close, Illinois residents and businesses can expect to pay $313 million more annually for electricity.
- Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project which is a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms.
