Governor Rauner says he's not sure whether he can support the legislation introduced last week designed to save the struggling Clinton nuclear power plant.
During an appearance in Bloomington Friday, Rauner said he generally supports nuclear power.
"Nuclear power plants are an important part of our overall energy mix. They're an important source of energy production and I want to make sure we have a broad energy mix in the state of Illinois. And nuclear power generation creates a lot of good paying jobs. I don't want to lose those jobs," Rauner said.
However, Rauner said the ultimatum issued last week by Exelon Generation, the owner of the Clinton facility, gives him pause.
"I'm always concerned whenever a business says, 'oh I guess in order to stay in Illinois, we need a big taxpayer subsidy.' So that's like a red light..'danger.' So the answer is we have to talk about it, figure out what makes sense. We're going to look at that bill and figure out how to handle it.
During a quarterly earnings announcement, Exelon CEO Chris Crain said without passage of a bill to subsidize Clinton and another plant in the Quad Cities, Exelon will close them. Clinton would shut down in June of next year, and the Quad Cities plant a year after that. Both plants are money losers, Crain said.
