Karl Grossman: “How Cuomo’s $7.6 Billion Nuclear Bail-out Can Impede Wind and Solar”

Karl GrossmanInvestigative journalist Karl Grossman (photo, left) -- a Beyond Nuclear board of directors member -- delivered a presentation to Long Island Metro Business Action entitled  “How Cuomo’s $7.6 Billion Nuclear Bail-out Can Impede Wind and Solar." A link to the written presentation is provided here.

Karl has also posted the presentation at his own blog, linked here.

NYPIRG: Take a look at this momentum [re: Stop the Cuomo Tax/No Nuclear Bailout]

Below is an Oct. 14th update from NYPIRG (New York Public Interest Group) re: Stopthecuomotax.org:

We're just getting started with our statewide push to Stop the Cuomo Tax and end the nuclear bailout that would cost New Yorkers nearly $8 billion in higher electricity rates. But already we've seen incredible momentum out of the gate. This week organizers staged a protest outside of Cuomo's parade for Columbus Day, and we're planning more events to increase our visibility in the coming days...

Already we're gaining a lot of traction around our campaign with thousands of you signed up to stop the Cuomo Tax. Check out some of the media coverage from the last weeks:

Journal News: Cuomo Wrong on Nuclear Plant Bailout
http://www.lohud.com/story/opinion/contributors/2016/10/12/cuomo-nuclear-plant-bailout/91945160/

New York’s nuclear bailout is merely the latest example of business getting off scot-free while taxpayers pick up multi-billion-dollar tabs. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is planning to bail out the aging and money-losing Ginna, FitzPatrick and Nine Mile Point nuclear plants, some of America’s oldest nuclear plants owned by Exelon and Entergy, with nearly $8 billion of New Yorkers’ hard-earned money (and another $2.8 billion if energy prices fall).

Gannett/The Journal News: Upstate nuclear plants' bailout among biggest in NY history
http://www.lohud.com/story/news/investigations/2016/10/12/nuclear-plants-bailout/91347458/

The tab for one of the largest corporate bailouts in the state's history will be picked up by every New Yorker with an electric bill.

Politico New York: National Advocacy Group Joins Fight Against Cuomo's Nuclear Subsidy
http://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2016/10/national-advocacy-group-joins-fight-against-cuomos-nuclear-subsidy-106292

New York Public News Service: Activists Oppose Ratepayer Bailout of Nuke Plants
http://www.publicnewsservice.org/2016-10-11/energy-policy/activists-oppose-ratepayer-bailout-of-nuke-plants/a54419-1

"Nuclear power is not a clean nor renewable source," he said. "It's dirty and it's dangerous, and it's very expensive."

Platts: New York Nuclear Plant Subsidies Fuel Controversy
http://www.platts.com/latest-news/electric-power/louisville-kentucky/new-york-nuclear-plant-subsidies-fuel-controversy-26565754

Electric Light and Power: Activists oppose FitzPatrick nuclear plant sale to Exelon
http://www.elp.com/articles/2016/10/activists-oppose-fitzpatrick-nuclear-plant-sale-to-exelon.html

Gannett News-Coalition forms to fight NY nuclear bailout.
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/new-york/2016/10/05/coalition-ny-nuclear-bailout/91626844/

Blair Horner, NYPIRG's legislative director, said ratepayers shouldn't be asked to pick up the tab for the aging plants, particularly as the state and nation shift toward renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

"This is like subsidizing the horse-and-buggy industry while Henry Ford is rolling cars off the assembly line," Horner said at a news conference Wednesday near the state Capitol.

New York Daily News: Cuomo plan to add nuclear plants may cost Con Edison customers extra $705M
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/cuomo-nuclear-plan-cost-edison-customers-extra-705m-article-1.2819022

Politico New York: Advocacy groups launch statewide campaign to fight $1B nuclear subsidy
https://www.politicopro.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2016/10/public-campaign-against-1-billion-nuclear-subsidy-wants-to-stop-the-cuomo-tax-106062

YNN/State of Politics: Coalition Forms To Oppose Utility Surcharge
http://www.nystateofpolitics.com/2016/10/coalition-forms-to-oppose-utility-surcharge/

CNHI Newgroup: Nuclear plan gets backlash from left, right
http://www.thedailystar.com/news/local_news/nuclear-plan-gets-backlash-from-left-right/article_928006bc-b987-595a-ae5c-c11871ccd29d.html

Newsday: Groups: Cuomo to hike LI utility rates to aid upstate
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/politics/spin-cycle/groups-cuomo-to-hike-li-utility-rates-to-aid-upstate-1.12410020

Capital Tonight segment: Campaign Launched to Oppose Utility Tax.
http://www.twcnews.com/nys/capital-region/capital-tonight-interviews/2016/10/5/campaign-launched-to-oppose-utility-tax.html

NY Public Radio: Groups Call Nuke Plant Bailout a 'Tax' on Ratepayers
http://wxxinews.org/post/groups-call-nuke-plant-bail-out-tax-ratepayers

Capitol Pressroom: Eric Weltman and Russ Haven
https://www.wcny.org/oct-6-2016-mothers-from-flint-beth-finkel-bob-bellafiore-and-steve-greenberg-eric-weltman-and-russ-haven/

Why won't New York show details of $35M deal with FitzPatrick nuke owner?

As reported at Syracuse.com, New York State agencies are dragging their heels, despite a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request, to disclose the details of a state pledge to Entergy to pay the nuclear utility a $35 fine of sorts, if approval of license transfer to Exelon, and a huge bailout, haven't been finalized by Nov. 18th.

Entergy's had announced last year that its FitzPatrick atomic reactor on the Lake Ontario shore -- an age-degraded Fukushima twin design -- would be close in early 2017.

But then Cuomo offered to bailout FitzPatrick, at ratepayer expense -- part of a $7.6 billion nuclear "tax" foisted on electricity consumers' bills throughout the state (even regions that do not get electricity from them), to prop up several failing reactors in upstate NY.

Once the bailout was secured, Exelon expressed its desire to buy FitzPatrick for pennies on the dollar, for a total amount of just $110 million.

Groups: Cuomo to hike LI utility rates to aid upstate [reactors]

A coalition of environmental, public interest, and ratepayer organizations has warned that Governor Andrew Cuomo's bailout of age-degraded upstate atomic reactors will burden Long Island ratepayers on their electric bills, Newsday reports.

DOE Task Force on the Future of Nuclear Power draft report calls for massive national subsidies to prop up dying industry

In Sept., 2016 the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, Task Force on the Future of Nuclear Power, published its Draft Report. The report calls for massive nationalized subsidies, to prop up dirty, dangerous/age-degraded, expensive/un-competitive, atomic reactors across the U.S.

[This Task Force report was cited in NIRS Nov. 2016 report, Too Big to Bail Out. The NIRS report, by its executive director, Tim Judson, estimates that a New York-style bail out, implemented across the U.S., could cost American ratepayers and/or taxpayers, a whopping $280 billion.]