If there is something that Disney has never lacked, it is power. One so big that it has allowed him in the state of Florida to do and undo whenever he wants. Ever since good old Walt began work on his theme park in Orlando in the 1960s, has wielded enormous political power. With all the resources and the law on his side, he used his influence to ensure he had even more control. However, Disney could not carry out his magical vision without permission from the Florida government to go freelance. What he needed was actually his own private municipality.
And he got it. Florida created Disney’s private government and gave it all kinds of powers: from building roads and drains, collecting taxes, issue bonds and have emergency services, privileges that are reserved only for the government of a county. We’ve talked about it at Magnet before. A jurisdiction in the Reedy Creek Improvement District with its own laws. It even has the power, for example, to create its own police force, although it has not done so until now.
But not only that, it also allowed the company to build things that it could use in the future, such as an airport or a power plant. In fact, a law enacted in 1967 makes it completely legal for the company to build and operate a nuclear reactor on your property. We are not surprised. At that time, green technologies did not have much weight.
Will Disney ever build a nuclear power plant?
Nope.
Well, at least the chances of it doing so are slim. Actually, according to its futuristic plan, the company then wanted its city of magic and color to be self-sufficient, and nuclear energy was in those days the best way to be. Let us remember that at that time nuclear power received a lot of support and Einsenhower had launched the initiative to Atoms for Peace. Disney even published a book called Our friend the atom in 1956.
Well, since the company has rubbed the nuclear option with its fingers for so long. Is it necessary today repeal said law? Recently, there have been rumors in Florida politics about changing it. Senator Víctor Torres defended that a family vacation space is not the place for such a thing: “I don’t think Disney will ever build a nuclear power plant, I don’t anticipate it, but I just want to prevent something like that from happening, period,” he explained in an interview in 2019.
There is practically 0 chance that Disney would get down to business with a nuclear plant. First, because it would tarnish the image of the company, which it works so hard to maintain. Y nuclear energy does not have a good reputation let’s say Second, it is much more likely that Disney would prefer to approach energy options that the public views more favorably. That is, renewable.
In fact, Disney World is trying to go green over the years. The 170,000-light Cinderella castle show has been converted to LED lighting, reducing the amount of energy used. They have been building a solar farm (in the shape of Mickey Mouse, of course) with no less than 48,000 solar panels and using a lot of natural gas.
Let us remember that the annual operating costs of Disney World exceed 10,000 million and require more than 1 billion kWh Of electricity. Not that Disney World doesn’t currently use nuclear power. Florida has four nuclear reactors at two plants managed by NextEra Energy that generate about 12% of the state’s power.
“Whether Walt had built a reactor or not is up for debate,” explained Christian Moran, director of the documentary. Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow: The Futurism of Walt Disney. “By the 1970s, solar technologies were getting to the point where he would have started researching them… I don’t think Walt would have gone ahead with a nuclear power plant. I think he was just giving himself options.” Y the cost of building one is also in the billions.
They also asked for and were given the authority to manufacture distilled beverages, which also doesn’t fit the Disney image. And they never did.
All these powers that Disney enjoys are due to its special district created in 1967, which exempts Disney from a number of regulations and certain taxes and fees. It has enabled the company to run its theme parks and resorts in the state with little red tape for more than 50 years. Thanks to that save tens of millions of euros year. A few weeks ago, at Magnet we told how the Florida Senate passed a bill to eliminate that special tax district.
There are even other valuable benefits that Disney receives from the state that lawmakers have not yet addressed. One is a $570 million tax break that Florida offered the company to relocate some 2,000 employees to the state. The other is an Orange County law that taxes hotel rooms to promote tourism. It must be remembered that Disney employs almost 80,000 people in the state. Tourism in the area brings in $5.8 billion in state and local tax revenue annually. You have to take care of Disney as it is. Even giving it a nuclear power plant (if they want it).