The state has issued an ultimatum to the operators of Indian Point: Shape up or ship out.
The environmentalists regaled the ruling.
The owners said not so fast.
The main problem with the plant is that it uses the cold river water to cool down the reactor and then dumps the now-heated water back into the Hudson River at the cost of a billion fish and other underwater denizens.
That number can be called into question since how do you count fish larvae, eggs and the other creatures accurately?
But, with 2.5 billion gallons being used each day by the power plant, there has to be adverse effects to the river.
To fix the problem would either require plant operator Entergy to build cooling towers at an as yet undetermined expense or shut down.
Since the nuclear reactor supplies 30 percent of the electricity for Westchester County and New York City, shutting down the plant would not be in the best interest of businesses here that already pay among the highest utility costs in the nation.
What would be the alternative?
Some have proposed solar and wind. The two are not in the same megawatt class as nuclear or fossil fuel.
Hydroelectric power would be an alternative, but that would require a dam and flowing water. And that can lead to other environmental concerns. We can recall the problem that a very small creature called the snail darter created for Tennessee as the state tried to come to grips with the energy crisis in the mid-1970s.
As with any business faced with updating its infrastructure or calling it quits, the best course of action would be for Entergy to make the necessary repairs.
We don”™t buy the argument that Indian Point would have to shut down to build the cooling towers. The state should allow the current water recycling to continue until the towers are in operation.
Shutting down the plant would be a loss for plant supporters and a victory for anti-nuclear advocates. But at what cost?
It would be a disaster for the local economy as 1,500 workers would be unemployed. Not to mention the hit to the tax base.
And in shutting the plant, it would mean leaving nuclear”™s near non-carbon footprint behind and turning to one with a major footprint: coal. A trade-off at the very least.
Shutting down Indian Point would be a wash at the very least on the environmental level.
So who wins?
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Doing the deficit shuffle
Ya gotta love the Democratic majority in Albany; they spend more time sending out press releases about how they plan to fix future budgets rather than dealing with the fiasco at hand.
Last week they offered their “comprehensive reforms to fix the state”™s broken budget process and give New Yorkers a fiscally responsible budget.”
Maybe we”™re nitpicking here or pointing to a much larger problem, but the press release refers to a “7-point legislative package” and ticks off six items.
It must have been the 11 days off to celebrate Passover and Easter that has their counts off.
Speaking of numbers, the comptroller”™s office uncovered budget shenanigans that are reminiscent of the Ponzi scheme Bernie Madoff was running.
Over the past decade, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said “more than $3.7 billion has been swept from dedicated state funds and transferred to the general fund.”
Since the general fund is the main operating fund of the state and is used to measure the state”™s projected budget deficit, the money shuffling has “distorted the state”™s financial picture.”
DiNapoli said the manipulation creates “the illusion each year that the state has closed its annual projected budget gap.”
So what”™s the state”™s actual bottom line?
“The end result is the state”™s real fiscal condition is impossible to pin down. Every time the game is played, taxpayers lose.”
That answer does not fill us with a lot of hope.
Just how close are we to insolvency?
