New York AREA Message to Assembly Committee Chairs Brennan and Cahill: Study Indian Point Carefully (video)
On January 12, the New York State Assembly Committee on Energy and the Committee on Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions held a joint hearing to discuss the impact to New York of shutting down Indian Point. This group of legislators was supposed to assess the extensive testimony of experts and then deliberate and deliver their findings. It is clear from the February 1 press release with “preliminary findings” issued by Committee Chairs Kevin Cahill and James Brennan that much of the testimony seems to have been ignored.
Today, New York AREA sent a letter to the members of both assembly committees and their chairmen, expressing our strong disagreement with the chairmen’s “preliminary findings,” which claim that electric rates and reliability will not be affected by Indian Point’s closure. This is contrary to multiple, independent studies on the impact of shutting down Indian Point. Those studies indicate that closing Indian Point would lead to a 5 to 10 percent increase in electric rates, the loss of 11,000 jobs in the Hudson Valley region, and an approximately 15% increase in carbon emissions.
Officials with Con Ed, NYISO, and Charles River Associates, as well as New York AREA Chairman Jerry Kremer affirmed those findings with the testimony they provided at the hearing.
The following video shows key excerpts from testimony at the January 12 hearing, the video of which is provided by the State of New York (used by New York AREA for issues education purposes only):
Regards,
Richard Thomas, Director
New York AREA
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