Appearing before the members of the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee this week, a pair of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) faculty members provided a presentation on the low-carbon benefits derived from nuclear power. While their testimony was not related to any specific legislative proposal, it was likely intended as context for anticipated legislation to bailout Ohio’s two nuclear power plants owned and operated by FirstEnergy subsidiaries. The two-year MIT study, “The Future of Nuclear Energy in a Carbon-Constrained World,” takes looks at the U.S. landscape and the stalled nuclear energy capacity growth. It outlines new policy measures to potentially reverse that trend, but the study did not include an examination of the state of Ohio or its zero-emissions nuclear proposals from the last General Assembly. Among the recommendations to policymakers: “decarbonization policies should create a level playing field that allows all low-carbon generation technologies to compete on their merits.” This, of course, is not what the various bailout proposals would do. 2/28/2019