Nuclear power is getting a lifeline. On August 1, in a controversial decision, New York State’s Public Service Commission voted to approve subsidies to all nuclear power plants in the state. The estimated eventual cost to electricity customers in the state is over $7 billion. Most of the bailout money will be channeled toward Exelon and Entergy — two large electric utility companies that have threatened to close down some of the reactors they were operating in the state.

Plant closures are increasingly common in the nuclear sector these days. Not counting the New York State reactors that have been given a lifeline, over the last three years, electrical utilities have decided to shut down thirteen nuclear reactors deemed economically uncompetitive, and the number of closures is expected to grow.

Coal plants are also flagging. The use of coal for electricity generation in the United States has fallen substantially in the last decade, from 50 percent in 2005 to 33 percent in 2015. More than 660 coal units have been retired since 2010, and of the more than 150 new coal plants proposed since 2000, the vast majority has been cancelled.