DRESDEN – State Senator Patrick Joyce (D-Essex) criticized the Exelon Corporation’s latest decision to retire Dresden Generating Station in fall 2021, employing 825 Grundy and Will County residents.

“Closing the plant during this economic hardship will have a long-lasting negative impact on the region,” Joyce said. “I am enraged that Exelon would choose to cut jobs and threaten our local economy at a time when hardworking men and women across the region are already struggling from this awful pandemic.”

Dresden Generating Station’s two nuclear reactors generate more than 1,800 megawatts of zero-emissions energy: enough carbon-free electricity to power more than 2 million homes. The plant was set to operate another decade.

Exelon also announced they would be closing the Byron Plant. Both plants combined supply 30 percent of Illinois’ carbon-free energy and help the state to meet its goal to achieve 100 percent clean energy.

Dresden provides hundreds of well-paying jobs and millions of dollars in local economic support, including about $24.8 million in taxes annually for schools, roads and other public services.

“I will continue to work with the bipartisan Senate’s Energy and Public Utilities Committee to institute policies that improve the lives of the people of the 40th State Senate District,” Joyce said.