Don’t subsidize FirstEnergy plants

I object to the proposed subsidies being considered for the nuclear power plants owned by FirstEnergy. This is pork at its smelliest. These plants are no longer profitable because natural gas generation is less expensive.

So what we have is instead of letting the marketplace give the consumer the benefit of lower costs, the legislature is considering taking money from the consumers, (the taxpayers) and giving it to FirstEnergy. Can we all say “THEFT?”

The excuse being given is to protect the jobs of the people who work there. To protect the tax base of the schools that receive a large part of their operating money by taxing the power plants (Can we say “WINDFALL?”) — taxes which are of course passed along in the form of higher rates to the consumers.

I say let FirstEnergy absorb the costs of shutting down the power plants. I say let the people whose children attend the extravagant schools built with money extracted from the taxpayers and ratepayers through the power plants support their schools on their own dime.

And, although I feel sorry for those whose jobs may be lost because of that closing, I don’t feel sorry enough for them that I want the government to pick my pocket to support them. They will get unemployment as they search for other jobs, which is already a pickpocketing job. Hopefully, they had enough sense to save money for just such an occurrence. Perhaps they remember the story of the ant and the grasshopper. John Petralia

Eastlake