Dive Brief:

• Exelon Corp., the largest nuclear plant operator in the nation, is quietly taking advantage of federal production tax credits (PTC) for its wind power projects even as its CEO Christopher Crane argues that the PTC is distorting energy markets and could lead to the closure of nuclear plants.
• "Exelon continues to oppose market-distorting subsidies like the PTC, but as we have consistently noted, we have a fiduciary responsibility to our shareholders to take advantage of applicable tax incentives, as appropriate, as long as they remain in place," said spokesman Paul Adams in a statement.
• Exelon has 44 wind projects. In its latest quarterly earnings, Exelon cited the benefits of the PTC, which gives developers $23 per megawatt hour of power produced.   

Dive Insight: 

A study commissioned by Exelon last year pointed to wind producers continuing to produce electricity at times of high wind and low demand as a serious problem. It causes electricity prices to drop even as the producers are selling electricity at a loss and earning tax subsidies. The wind industry is pushing Congress to extend the PTC beyond this year but many leading utilities, such as Entergy, prefer a market price on carbon as a way to level the playing field among sources of electricity generation.