Beyond Nuclear - Nuclear Costs What's New

Tell Governor Cuomo to "hang up" on nuclear subsidies and support renewable energy and energy efficiency instead.

Please call Governor Cuomo today: (518) 474-8390, or message him, here.

Click here for some simple instructions and sample call scripts you can use when you call.

Thanks to Jessica Azulay at Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE) in New York State for sending out this action alert. Please see it below, and take action as soon as possible -- the New York State Public Service Commission could finalize its decision as early as Monday, August 1st! Jessica also asks that you please forward this action alert widely.

Even if you don't live in New York, please take action. Certainly, alert anyone you know in NY to this, so they can communicate directly with Gov. Cuomo. But those who live in other states, or even another country (Canada), would face higher prices, if you ever travel to New York State -- businesses will be forced to raise prices for their products, and even municipalities for their services (such as public transit, such as electrified subway systems), to compensate for this nuclear bailout delivered as a nuclear tax on electricity bills.

But in addition, the precedent could spread to other states (or even provinces) near you, once it is set in such a big, highly populated, influential state as New York. Exelon and Entergy are the two nuclear utilities that would benefit most from this New York bailout -- and, funds being fungible, that could help prop up their reactors in others states, such as Exelon's in Illinois, Entergy's Palisades in Michigan, etc. Even other nuclear utilities, such as FirstEnergy in Ohio, could argue that subsidizing Davis-Besse makes sense, given the NY precedent. All of this has dire implications for Lake Michigan and Lake Erie (and all points downstream), of course! Altogether, the Great Lakes are the drinking water supply for 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, and 2 Canadian provinces!

And perhaps most significantly of all, propping up these age-degraded, dirty, dangerous and expensive atomic reactors, at ratepayer expense, is playing with fire, in terms of risks to health, safety, and the environment. The upstate New York reactors on the Lake Ontario shore (Ginna, FitzPatrick, Nine Mile Point Units 1 & 2) are deep into their breakdown phase, at risk of a catastrophic failure. This could radioactively ruin Lake Ontario, drinking water supply for nine million people downstream, in both the U.S. and Canada, as well as a large number of Native American First Nations.

And Indian Point's two reactors near New York City -- which, it now appears, could also get cut in on the deal too -- are surrounded by more than 20 million people, within a 50-mile radius.

Indian Point was already considered for attack by Al Qaeda in 2001, and represents an ongoing, huge security risk. Ed Lyman of Union of Concerned Scientists in 2004, in a report entitled "Chernobyl on the Hudson?", reported that up to 44,000 acute fatalities (radiation poisoning deaths), over 500,000 latent cancer fatalities, and more than a trillion dollars (yes, with a T) of property damage could result, depending on weather conditions, if a successful terrorist attack happened at Indian Point.

These "games" of radioactive Russian roulette are unacceptable, putting at risk a large part of North America, downwind and downstream, up the food chain, and down the generations. This bailout of New York's atomic reactors must be stopped. Please phone New York Governor Cuomo today and tell him so! Use AGREE's sample call scripts provided below, and include other points (such as those above, if you find them compelling and helpful). Thanks.

Sincerely,

Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear

From: "Jessica Azulay" <jessica@allianceforagreeneconomy.org>

Your call today could save New York billions of dollars!

Tell Governor Cuomo to "hang up" on nuclear subsidies and support renewable energy and energy efficiency instead.

Next Monday, New York’s energy regulators may approve an electric rate increase on all New York’s energy consumers. The plan would cost $7-10 billion to prop up NY’s unprofitable nuclear plants. Without these subsidies, nuclear plants cannot compete with renewable energy and will close. But under the guise of “Clean Energy,” the nuclear industry is about to get its hands on our money in order to save its own profits, at the expense of public health and safety – unless we speak up right now.

Thousands of New Yorkers, over 120 organizations, and dozens of elected officials have gone on record opposing the plan. But the Governor has not backed down. Now we need to raise the pressure by flooding his office with phone calls.

Please call Governor Cuomo today: (518) 474-8390

Click here for some simple instructions and sample call scripts you can use when you call.

Every dollar spent on nuclear subsidies is a dollar out of the pocket of New York's electricity consumers -- residents, businesses, and municipalities. This is money that could instead go to supporting energy affordability, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and a just transition to a clean energy economy.

For more information, visit www.CleanUptheCleanEnergyStandard.org and stay up to date on the AGREE Facebook page. Please contact Alliance for a Green Economy if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Jessica Azulay

______________________________

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----Background---

New York's Governor Would Rather Prop Up the Nuclear Industry Than Invest in Renewable Energy

By Jessica Azulay / AlterNet
July 13, 2016

New York is poised to dump $7.6 billion into dirty, dangerous and aging nuclear power plants as part of a policy that Governor Andrew Cuomo is calling the Clean Energy Standard. Although this policy would provide support for renewable energy by requiring utilities to meet New York’s goal of producing 50 percent of electricity from renewable energy by 2030, sadly the real money in the plan is sadly reserved for bailing out nuclear plants. The governor wants to keep several aging nuclear plants open to preserve jobs in two upstate communities.

That may be good politics—and certainly no one wants people to lose jobs—but there are substantial drawbacks, including putting millions of New Yorkers at risk. Why doesn't the governor invest clean energy funds in actual clean energy, such as solar and wind?

To put the 12-year, $7.6 billion plan into perspective, consider that Cuomo’s NY-Sun program, which pays for the state’s solar incentives, is slated to invest only $1 billion into the solar industry over 10 years. That billion dollars has supported the creation of a lot of jobs. Halfway through NY-Sun’s life, New York state has benefited from the creation of 8,000 solar jobs. Conversely, the $7.6 billion to keep nuclear plants open will save about 2,000 jobs. Based on this math, the money would be better spent invested in solar energy. If the governor wants to give existing nuclear workers a helping hand, he could also provide renewable energy companies incentives to hire them.

Left as it is, the nuclear subsidy policy would turn on its head New York’s promise to lead the nation in renewable energy and instead leave New York and Governor Cuomo leading the nation in nuclear subsidies for old and dangerous reactors. The so-called Clean Energy Standard would spend twice the amount of money on dirty energy as it would on renewables. That is preposterous.

The plants that the state wants to prop up are failures both financially and technologically. For instance, the FitzPatrick reactor in Oswego was recently shut down for 12 days due to an electrical issue that ended up causing the plant to spill oil into Lake Ontario—the drinking water source for over 9 million people. FitzPatrick is losing so much money the company that owns it, Entergy, is ready to shut it down. But the governor has apparently been working behind the scenes to get another company to buy the plant in exchange for these generous nuclear subsidies.

The potential buyer, Exelon, also owns two reactors next door, both of which share FitzPatrick’s Fukushima-style design that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has admitted is flawed and could lead to radioactive releases in the case of an accident. Aside from accidents, perhaps nuclear’s biggest failure of all is that it creates thousands of tons of radioactive waste. There is no long-term plan to deal with this waste, so for generations after the electrons generated by the plants have been used, the toxic radioactive waste will remain. Is this the legacy Governor Cuomo wants to leave for New York?

Imagine what New York could do if Cuomo would go all-in on the thriving renewable energy sector instead of dumping more money into the nuclear industry. We could put more funding into wind and solar—including getting offshore wind up and running—and make tens of thousands of homes more energy efficient, creating jobs and saving people money. We could put real dollars into the geothermal industry and get ourselves off fracked gas and other fossil fuels used to heat our homes. We’d have money to help with worker retraining and transitioning communities into the green economy. In short, we could accelerate our transition to 100 percent renewable energy, getting there faster, cheaper and safer.

Thousands of New Yorkers and over 100 organizations have criticized these nuclear subsidies, instead calling for the governor to let dangerous and unprofitable nuclear plants close and to invest our money in renewable energy and energy efficiency instead. But on July 8, the governor’s Public Service Commission went the opposite direction, releasing a new, expensive version of the proposed subsidies. The commission is giving the public a paltry 10 days to comment while the governor stated to the press Wednesday he is working to finalize a deal to keep FitzPatrick open to save 600 jobs and use nuclear as a so-called “clean energy bridge” at the cost of billions of dollars.

Governor Cuomo should protect the safety of millions of New Yorkers. He should say no to subsidizing the nuclear industry and yes to New York’s clean and green energy economy. Call him today at (518) 474-8390.

Update from Alliance for a Green Economy: The new proposal from the Public Service Commission targets the upstate nuclear reactors, but leaves the door open to subsidies for Entergy’s Indian Point reactor starting in 2019. If Indian Point is included in this plan, the costs will rise to over $10 billion. This could also undermine efforts by the environmental movement and New York State government agencies to close Indian Point.

Please call Governor Cuomo today: (518) 474-8390

Click here for some simple instructions and sample call scripts you can use when you call.

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