Owner decides to close Kewaunee Nuclear Plant

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Governor Scott Walker blames the federal EPA’s policies for Dominion Resources’ decision early this week to close the Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant.

Dominion, based in Virginia, said it’s been trying for 18 months to find a buyer for the plant and could not do so. Walker said his administration tried twice last year to, “get cumbersome E-P-A regulations out of the way of job creators.”

Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie said a proposed EPA rule on cooling water intake structures at nuclear plants resulted in companies shying away from buying the Kewaunee plant.

Daniel Stoddard of Dominion would not say how far it got in negotiations for selling the nuclear plant, but he said the prospect of increased federal regulations was not the major reason in closing Kewaunee. He said the larger blame was the declining cost of natural gas, and a boom in gas production resulting from the increased use of frac-sand.

According to Dominion, those developments have made it cheaper for utilities to use natural gas to create electricity. About 400 jobs are expected to be lost through the closing of the Kewaunee plant.

Tags: wisconsin, environment, business