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Springfield, Ill. • Exelon Corp. said Thursday that it will shut two Illinois nuclear power plants after the Legislature failed to approve a financial-support plan, but an email obtained by The Associated Press indicates the company is pursuing a full-steam lobbying effort.

The Chicago-based power-provider announced it will shutter the Clinton Power Station in Clinton on June 1, 2017, and the Quad Cities Generating Station in Cordova will close June 1, 2018.

Exelon said it had to begin the lengthy shutdown process because it can't count on legislation that would extend state subsidies to nuclear generators producing reliable, carbon-free electricity that will help Illinois meet federal requirements. Lawmakers adjourned their spring session Tuesday

"Unfortunately, legislation was not passed, and now we are forced to retire the plants," Exelon CEO and President Chris Crane said in a statement. Together, the Quad Cities site, which began operation in 1973, and Clinton, which reached full power in fall 1987, employ 1,500.

Earlier Thursday, Crane's email to employees with the news, obtained by the AP, included a plea that workers call a listed telephone line and record a message for Gov. Bruce Rauner and lawmakers in favor of the legislation.

The recorded greeting urges callers to tell lawmakers that "if they take action immediately, they may be able to stop the closures at the Clinton and Quad Cities plants and save your job."

Exelon spokesman Paul Adams confirmed the closure decision is not irreversible, but released a statement saying that it would be possible "only in narrow circumstances, and as weeks pass, a reversal becomes more and more difficult."

The process, which begins with notice to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, started because Exelon sees no immediate success for the so-called Next Generation Energy Plan "in the current environment," where legislators left the Capitol without agreeing to a state budget for the second year in a row.

While the BEST Coalition, a consumer group opposing the plan, called it "profoundly anti-consumer," the measure's Senate sponsor, Democrat Donne Trotter of Chicago, said talks continue and progress had been made in the past few weeks.

"Unfortunately there are too many people running around with 'The Simpsons' idea of how nuclear plants run, and that they have no major role in our future," Trotter said. "Experts around the world agree nuclear is a big part. Our greenhouse gasses didn't become a problem until they started ratcheting down the nuclear energy."

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Contact Political Writer John O'Connor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/john-oconnor .