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Exelon

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This is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's climate change project.

This article is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's focus on the fallout of nuclear "spin."

This article is part of the Coal Issues portal on SourceWatch, a project of CoalSwarm and the Center for Media and Democracy.
Exelon Corporation
Type Public (NYSE: EXC)
Headquarters 10 South Dearborn St., 48th Floor
Chicago, IL 60603
Area served IL, PA
Key people John W. Rowe, CEO
Industry Electric Producer, Distributor, and Utility
Products Electricity
Revenue $18.92 billion (2007)[1]
Net income ▲ $2.74 billion (2007)[1]
Employees 17,800
Subsidiaries ComEd
PECO
Exelon Generation
Exelon Power
Exelon Nuclear
Exelon Power Team
Website ExelonCorp.com

Exelon Corporation is an electricity generating and distributing company headquartered in Chicago. It was created in October 2000, by the merger of PECO Energy Company and Unicom, of Philadelphia and Chicago respectively (Unicom was the owner of Commonwealth Edison). Exelon has 5.2 million electricity customers and, in the Philadelphia suburbs, 460,000 natural gas customers.

In June, 2005 Exelon had full or majority ownership of 19 nuclear reactors in 11 nuclear power plants.

On June 30, 2005, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the merger of Exelon and Public Service Enterprise Group, a New Jersey utility. Under this merger, Exelon would have become the largest utility in the United States.[2] The two companies later broke off the agreement[3] due to pressure put on the NJ Board of Public Utilities by public interest groups, including New Jersey Citizen Action.[4]The merger sat pending in front of the NJBPU for nineteen months before Exelon concluded that they were fighting a losing battle.[5]

A shareholder resolution filed by one Exelon shareholder for the Company's 2008 annual meeting criticizes executive pay levels at the Company.

Contents

Exelon leaves Chamber of Commerce over climate policy

In September 2009, Exelon announced it was quitting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of the lobbying organization's opposition to climate legislation. Explaining the company's views, CEO John W. Rowe said, "Putting a price on carbon is essential, because it will force us to do the cheapest things, like energy efficiency, first." Exelon is the third energy company to leave the Chamber, after PG&E and PNM Resources.[6]

Power portfolio

Out of its total 26,877 MW of electric generating capacity in 2005 (2.52% of the U.S. total), Exelon produces 66.7% from nuclear, 14.8% from natural gas, 9.5% from oil, 4.7% from hydroelectricity, 3.3% from coal, 0.6% from wind, and 0.2% from biomass. Exelon owns power plants in Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia.[7]

Existing coal-fired power plants

Exelon owned 3 coal-fired generating stations in 2005, with 895 MW of capacity. Here is a list of Exelon's coal power plants:[7][8][9]

Plant Name State County Year(s) Built Capacity 2007 CO2 Emissions 2006 SO2 Emissions
Eddystone PA Delaware 1960 707 MW 4,128,000 tons 6,454 tons
Cromby PA Chester 1954 188 MW 1,129,000 tons 5,588 tons

In 2006, Exelon's 2 coal-fired power plants emitted 5.2 million tons of CO2 and 12,000 tons of SO2.

Exelon announces plan to shut coal plants in Pennsylvania

On December 2, 2009, Exelon announced that it would retire Cromby Generating Station and two units at Eddystone Generating Station in 2011. The closures include 144 MW of coal-fired power at Cromby and another 588 MW at Eddystone. Eddystone will continue to operate 820 MW of natural gas- and oil-fired generation. Exelon senior vice president Doyle Beneby said the retirements were due to "decreased power demand, over supply of natural gas and increasing operating costs," adding that, "these aging units are no longer efficient enough to compete with newer resources."[10] The announcement comes just one day after Progress Energy said it would shut 11 aging coal-fired power units totaling almost 1,500 MW in North Carolina.[11]

Exelon Nuclear

Exelon Nuclear has its headquarters in Warrenville, Illinois and is a business unit of Exelon Coroporation. It operates the largest nuclear fleet in the nation and the third largest in the world. Exelon's ten stations -- with 17 reactors -- represent approximately 20 percent of the U.S. nuclear industry's power capacity. The stations include: Braidwood Generating Station, Byron Generation Station, Clinton Power Station, Dresden Generating Station, LaSalle County Generating Station, Limerick Generating STation, Oyster Creek Generating Station, Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Quad Cities Generating Station, Three Mile Island Unit-1, Zion Generating Station.[citation needed]

Exelon supports the belief that nuclear power has an imporant role in the future energy supply and has stated that "20 to 30 new nuclear plants will be needed by 2030 in order to address climate change and enhance energy security."[citation needed]

Exelon intends to file a combined construction and operating license for a single unit in Texas by the end of 2008.[citation needed]

Exelon received approval in March for an early site permit at its Clinton Station in DeWitt County, Illinois -- the first permit of its kind granted in the industry. The permit is valid for up to 20 years.[citation needed]

Peach Bottom's sleeping guards

In 2007, whistleblower Kerry Beal told the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that guards at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station were sleeping on the job. He had previously brought his concerns to a plant supervisor, but was told to "be a team player." [12]

Initially, the NRC "told the plant's owner to investigate even though the accusation involved company managers." The NRC's Inspector General later ruled that asking the plant's owner, Exelon, and its security provider, Wackenhut, to investigate themselves was a violation of NRC policies. Not surprisingly, neither Exelon nor Wackenhut "were unable to substantiate the claim. But, months later, 10 security officers were videotaped sleeping on duty." The NRC then launched its own investigation and confirmed the charges, leading Wackenhut to fire the guards and Exelon to fire Wackenhut. [12]

Relicensing Three Mile Island

To overcome local opposition to the re-licensing of the Three Mile Island's unit 1 reactor, Exelon agreed "to pay for an expanded community radiation monitoring system, increase charitable donations to community groups and continue its policy of not storing waste from other nuclear plants," reported the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "The company also agreed not to oppose the decommissioning of the TMI Unit 2 reactor, destroyed in the 1979 accident when equipment malfunction and operator error led to a partial meltdown of the reactor core and an air release of radioactive material." [13]

Environmental record

In 2005 Exelon was required to pay $602,000 for exceeding the permitted sulfur dioxide emission limit from April through October 2004 at Cromby Generating Station in Chester County, Pennsylvania.[14]

Lobbying

According to lobbying disclosure forms, Exelon $1.2 million from April to June 2008, "to lobby on tax credits for renewable energy sources," as well as "on telecommunications issues, trade cases involving uranium enrichment, energy policy, the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal project, energy and water appropriations, and climate change." In addition to Congress, Exelon lobbied the Office of Management and Budget, the departments of Energy, Justice and Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Government Accountability Office, Federal Communications Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission. [15]

Donations to, and support from, Barack Obama

An October, 2006 issue of Harper's magazine reported that Barack Obama had accepted $70,000 in donations from Exelon, "a leading nuclear-plant operator based in Illinois," since 2004. The article said,

At a 2005 hearing at the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, of which Obama is a member, the senator —- echoing the nuclear industry's current campaign to promotes nuclear energy as “green” —- said that since Congress was debating “policies to address air quality and the deleterious effects of carbon emissions on the global ecosystem, it is reasonable—and realistic—for nuclear power to remain on the table for consideration.”[16]

Articles and resources

Related SourceWatch articles

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Exelon Corp., BusinessWeek Company Insight Center, accessed July 2008.
  2. ↑ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8419580
  3. ↑ Press Releases, PSEG website.
  4. ↑ NJCA in the News, New Jersey Citizen Action website.
  5. ↑ Press Releases, PSEG website.
  6. ↑ "Out the Door: Exelon Leaves Chamber of Commerce over Climate Policy,"] Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2009.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2005, Energy Information Administration, accessed April 2008.
  8. ↑ Environmental Integrity Project, Dirty Kilowatts: America’s Most Polluting Power Plants, July 2007.
  9. ↑ Dig Deeper, Carbon Monitoring for Action database, accessed June 2008.
  10. ↑ "Exelon to retire 933 MW of capacity in 2011," Power Engineering, December 2, 2009.
  11. ↑ Progress Energy
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Garry Lenton, "NRC broke rules in plant inquiry, report says," The Patriot-News (Pennsylvania), September 9, 2008.
  13. ↑ Don Hopey, "Nuclear reactor owners rush to extend licenses," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 29, 2008.
  14. ↑ AmeriScan: June 30, 2005
  15. ↑ "Exelon spent $1.2M lobbying government in 2Q," Associated Press, September 24, 2008.
  16. ↑ Ken Silverstein A Bit More on Barack Washington Babylon, October 26, 2006

External resources

External articles


Wikipedia also has an article on Exelon. This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the GFDL.

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