This actually makes a lot of sense to me (someone from an urban area). I never understood why all these towns in the middle of nowhere USA would offer such gene

This actually makes a lot of sense to me (someone from an urban area). I never understood why all these towns in the middle of nowhere USA would offer such generous subsidies but this line of reasoning perfectly justifies it. I suspect the cost to decommission or "right-size" these sorts of facilities would probably cost... on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars.