Energy Association Says Indian Point is Irreplaceable

ALBANY, NY (12/03/2007)(readMedia)-- “From an environmental, economic, and electric system operation point of view, there simply are no realistic practical alternatives to the renewal of Indian Point’s license. The Indian Point Nuclear facility is a valuable asset for the State that will be virtually impossible to replace for many years to come” according to the Executive Director of The Energy Association of New York State, Patrick J. Curran.

“New York is struggling to figure out how to provide the 2000MW of additional electricity it is going to need downstate in the next few years without significantly increasing carbon emissions. Even if unprecedented success can be achieved with aggressive conservation efforts, New York will still require significant new generation along with electric and gas transmission facilities in the metropolitan area, all extremely difficult to site and build. It is incongruous to suggest at the same time that we remove another 2000MW of essentially emission free, reliable, economic, baseload generation from the region (and that plays a key role in supporting transmission on the grid) by not renewing Indian Point’s license.

The only practical alternative would be to site and build even more baseload natural gas fired facilities than will already be necessary, with the supporting gas pipelines, all in the next 3-5 years. If that were even possible, it would reduce fuel diversity and create a dangerous overdependence on natural gas, raising serious price and reliability concerns.

As neighboring states and much of the rest of the developed and developing world embrace nuclear power as essential to dealing with the twin realities of global warming and growing electric demand, it would be profoundly irresponsible for New York to stumble in the opposite direction with no realistic alternative” said Curran.

The member companies of the Energy Association are the owners and operators of much the state’s electric and natural gas infrastructure, comprised of many hundreds of thousands of individual shareholders including a great many New Yorkers and retirees, employing over 28,000 New Yorkers, serving over 7 million New York customers and their families and businesses, annually paying over $2.5 billion in state and local taxes and contributing tens of millions of dollars annually to community and charitable purposes.

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