Business and labor groups are lining up against a proposal by the state Department of Environmental Conservation to close Indian Point Energy Center during the spring and summer to protect fish in the Hudson River.
The DEC is looking at options to protect fish and their eggs, which are killed when Indian Point sucks river water into its system for cooling. The state could require one or both of the Buchanan nuclear power facility”™s generators to be shut down for 42-92 days between May and August, when fish are most likely to spawn but also when the electric grid is at its peak usage period.
Arthur “Jerry” Kremer, chairman of the New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance and a former state assemblyman, called the proposal “unquestionably one of the dumbest ideas to come out of a state committee in 50 years.”
The proposal has been knocked by business advocates who say the outages would be detrimental to the local economy by causing electric rates to spike and reducing the reliability of the grid in the hotter months, when air conditioning use increases energy consumption. Industry representatives say Indian Point produces as much as a quarter of all the power used in the region and that the loss of that energy would mean the production has to be replaced by non-nuclear power in coal or fuel plants that could increase air pollution.
Phelps Memorial Hospital Center in Sleepy Hollow sent the DEC a letter opposing the plan, saying it would cause increased air pollution and could have negative health impacts in minority communities downstate, where the majority of non-nuclear plants are located. “These communities are defenseless against toxic air emissions,” Keith F. Safian, president and CEO of the center, wrote. “Compounding these serious problems is continuing limited access to affordable medical treatment for these populations.”
Labor groups have criticized the plan because it could reduce thousands of full-time jobs at the plant into part-time jobs. James Slevin, president of the 8,000-member Utility Workers Union of America Local 1-2, criticized Albany for considering the proposal in a conference call with reporters this month. “I don”™t know where their heads are,” he said.
A DEC public hearing in Cortlandt on July 22 saw dozens of pro-business speakers, labor representatives and community groups bused in from New York City with members holding signs opposing the plan.
John Ravitz, executive vice president of The Business Council of Westchester, was among the speakers. He said the forced outages would send “a chilling message to businesses” about state commerce. Al Samuels, CEO and president of the Rockland Business Association, said the forced closure of a private business at a high-revenue time of the year would discourage other businesses from relocating to the region for fear of over-regulation from the state.
“Why would you want to spend millions of dollars to move to New York from wherever,” Samuels said. He also noted the loss of weeks of operation would mean a reduction of the tax assessment of the property and in turn a loss of property tax revenue for the town and school district.
The closures emerged as an option because Entergy Corp., which owns Indian Point, was resistant to the idea of installing a closed-cycle cooling system that would involve building towers so the plant would be less reliant on river water. Entergy has contested the science that using the river water and pouring warmer water back into the river has had any effect on aquatic life there. “All of these impacts might be worth considering if outages at Indian Point were actually necessary to protect fish and larvae, but they are not,” Fred Dacino, vice president of license renewal for Entergy, said. Entergy has said that Wedgewire screens are a better option to limit the effect on fish and their larvae. Those screens, which would be installed underwater, were rejected as a solution by the DEC.
Marilyn Elie, from the civic group Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition, said she preferred the closed-cycle cooling system. That plan has been portrayed as requiring the construction of two cooling towers the size of Yankee Stadium, but Elie said there were design alternatives that would make the installation more aesthetically palatable.
Elie, a teacher, said the country needed to move away from its reliance on nuclear energy because of the radioactive waste that was being left for future generations. “There”™s a selfishness and lack of morality when you don”™t clean up your own mess,” she said.
The DEC hearing also drew colorful criticisms from Sunny Armer, a member of the anti-Indian Point group Raging Grannies. Armer, speaking as a ventriloquist through a fish puppet, sang a song to the tune of “She”™ll Be Coming ”™Round the Mountain.”
“Before we could trust uranium, we need holes in our cranium,” she sang. “We haven”™t yet gone that far ”™round the bend.”
The DEC said its proposal would not take effect this year and it likely won”™t make a decision until early 2015. In a separate matter, Indian Point is seeking to renew its operating license with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for another 20 years. Environmental groups have looked at the proposed outages as a first step to easing the state off reliance on the plant. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is among those calling for the eventual shutdown of Indian Point.
When do we stop compromising the interests of the entire population of our community over the rantings of these so called special interest groups? Indian Point has been operating here for decades and now all of a sudden some particular species of fish is in danger. The idea is ludicrous. Let’s destroy the economy of a local area, cause a shortage of electricity in the most desperately needed times and totally disregard the fact that nuclear power has zero negative effect on air pollution which IS a valid concern in our area. But don’t listen to me……. Listen to the lady with the singing puppet…..