Springfield (The Simpsons) endowed with flippered mutants. In the Season 25 episode "Homerland", he comments that the air conditioning system has never worked properly. In one episode, Mr. Burns mentions that he owns the electric company as part of his power monopoly. The design and folly of Springfield Nuclear Power Plant is often rumored to be based on the troubled Trojan Nuclear Power Plant (closed in 1993 due to defects) near Matt Groening's home town of Portland, Oregon, or the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington. However, Antonia Coffman, Groening's publicist, has said that the Springfield plant's design is generic and that "the Springfield
Politics in The Simpsons in an interview that "We [the show] are of liberal bent." The writers often evince an appreciation for progressive ideals, but the show makes jokes across the political spectrum. In the DVD commentaries, creator Matt Groening and the majority of people who work on the show state several times that they are very liberal, but some, such as John Swartzwelder (the writer of many episodes), are libertarian. So the two main political parties of Springfield, the Republicans and the Democrats, reside in a stereotype Draculan castle, and in a public salad bar respectively; the on/off Mayor, Joe Quimby is represented