Here are the reasons why:
- Palisades has a long history of expensive problems, which led it to be recurrently shut down for maintenance. These problems were the reason Consumers Energy sold it to Entergy in 2007, and the reason Entergy eventually shut it down in 2022. These problems made the Palisades expensive to operate and unreliable. Things are still problematic for Palisades, but Holtec is flush with government subsidy to restart and operate it. Palisades is a poor replacement for the reliable Campbell, so Campbell should not be closed even if Palisades re-opens. Operating Palisades is both unreliable, expensive and environmentally risky, in contrast to the Campbell.
- Given the huge growing demand for electricity especially related to AI data centers, the electric from the Campbell will still be valuable even if the Palisades re-start is successful and lasting, which is why the Trump Administration is seeking to stop the closure of fossil fuel plants like Campbell.
- If the Campbell is not needed, then while all the new battery and solar field developments? We need to keep the Campbell open instead of building dangerous battery storage plants and wasteful solar panel fields which do not provide reliable baseload electric but waste our valuable farmlands.