2 nuke plants, 1 bribery scandal, no answers

For much of the past four years, the residents of a pair of villages along Lake Erie have been on edge over the fate of their nuclear plants, which generate enough tax money to pay for nicer schools than their neighbors.

Like many U.S. nuclear plants struggling to compete with with natural gas and renewable energy, the owners of the Ohio plants turned to the government for help, persuading the state’s lawmakers to give them a $1 billion bailout.

But relief for the villages of Perry and Oak Harbor was short-lived after the financial rescue became entangled in a political bribery scandal that has brought calls to jettison the bailout.

The uncertainty surrounding the future of both Ohio plants — Davis-Besse near Toledo and Perry near Cleveland — has created a new wave of anxiety that is stretching into another year after state lawmakers, at the end of December, put off deciding whether to repeal the bailout or come up with a new financial lifeline that would keep the plants open.

It’s just the latest twist for the rural towns, which found themselves caught in the middle of the scandal-tainted bailout this summer when federal investigators said the plants’ former owner secretly funneled millions to secure the payout.

“It’s like a big slap in the face,” said Perry Fire Chief James McDonald, whose department gets nearly half of its budget from taxes paid by the nuclear plant east of Cleveland.

The nuclear plants are anchors for Perry and Oak Harbor, two working-class bedroom communities that are rooted in agriculture and have little other industry. The two plants employ about 1,400 workers and generate roughly $30 million in tax revenue for their home communities, with the biggest chunk going to schools — which are the communities’ biggest draw.

Closing the DavisBesse plant would be “catastrophic,” said Guy Parmigian, superintendent of a school district that would lose millions from a closure. “It’s not just us. It’s our library, our county, the township.”

Because his school gets about 40% of its revenue from the plant, the district would face deep budget cuts without it. “We don’t want to think about the possibilities, but they’re certainly there on the table,” Parmigian said.

It’s a familiar conundrum for towns anchored by nuclear plants.

They often become too reliant on their tax revenue, as it’s hard to attract other businesses because of the fears associated with the industry. Plus, almost all nuclear plants — including the ones in Ohio — are in outof-the-way places, and many closed sites can’t be redeveloped for new uses because they store radioactive waste.