U.S. Department of Energy officials are in the region today touting a big financial boost for the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant restart.
The DOE and USDA today are announcing more than $2.8 billion to support nuclear energy — that includes the official closing on a $1.5 billion loan guarantee for Holtec for the Palisades restart and another $1.3 billion for Wolverine Power Cooperative and Hoosier Energy to reduce the cost of moving electricity from Palisades to customers.
Administration officials say the money is part of the Inflation Reduction Act’s Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment program — helping finance the restoration and resumption of service from the nuclear power plant in Covert.
The Administration says this announcement marks the first closing of a loan guarantee (the $1.5 billion included in the announcement) through the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) program under Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Section 1706, first authorized and appropriated by the Inflation Reduction Act. EIR can finance projects that retool, repower, repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure that has ceased operations or enable operating energy infrastructure to avoid, reduce, utilize, or sequester air pollutants or greenhouse gas emissions.
Former governor and current U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a statement:
“Nuclear power is America’s largest source of carbon-free of electricity, supporting hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs across the country and will play a critical role in tackling the climate crisis and protecting public health and the environment from its impacts.”
Federal, state, and local leaders have scheduled a press conference later Monday to make the formal announcement. This story will be updated.
