FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 25, 2015 | Contact: Jessica Azulay, Program Director, Alliance for a Green Economy, 917-697-4472.
In response to the Public Service Commission proposal released today to mandate that utilities buy renewable energy and nuclear energy under a “Clean Energy Standard,” Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE) released the following statement:
“We support the creation of a renewable energy standard in New York as a way to ensure that the state will meet its climate goals of 50% renewables by 2030. The creation of this standard is responsive to the thousands of New Yorkers who have spoken up at public hearings and submitted comments calling for the state to commit to binding targets for renewable energy development. This kind of policy is necessary in the face of catastrophic climate change and the resulting need to build a renewable energy future in New York.
“But the policy released today also includes a mandate that utility customers must prop up the uneconomical and dangerous nuclear power plants in Upstate New York. The inclusion of nuclear power in a “clean energy” policy is a slap in the face to the communities suffering from radiation poisoning due to uranium mining, the civilians worldwide permanently evacuated from their homes by nuclear accidents, the cancer survivors and victims’ made sick by legal and illegal leaks at nuclear plants across the nation, and the future generations who will grapple with nuclear waste for hundreds of thousands of years. Nuclear power reactors may not emit carbon dioxide or methane, but that doesn’t make them clean or safe.
“Upstate New York is already in the grips of an energy insecurity crisis, in which tens of thousands of low-income households cannot afford their utility bills and face life-threatening shutoffs as a result. Instead of ensuring better energy affordability and a clean environment for these customers, the Public Service Commission is writing a blank check from electricity consumers to Exelon and Entergy Corporations, owners of the aging upstate nuclear plants. Exelon and Entergy stand to gain hundreds of millions of dollars per year from this policy, while everyday people are left in the cold and the dark.
“This uncompetitive subsidy doesn’t even allow renewable energy or energy efficiency providers to compete with the nuclear power plants for emissions reductions credits. Instead, this policy sets up Exelon and Entergy as the only possible recipients of the money and puts them in the driver’s seat to set the price and hold consumers and utility companies hostage to whatever they want to get paid. This is despite the fact that energy efficiency and renewables could be built at lower cost to replace these plants. (See: http://beyondfitzpatrick.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/replacing_fitzpatrick_updated.pdf)
“We intend to challenge the logic and the legality of this policy.”
The Clean Energy Standard White Paper from the Public Service Commission can be found here: http://documents.dps.ny.gov/public/Common/ViewDoc.aspx?DocRefId={930CE8E2-F2D8-404C-9E36-71A72123A89D}
Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE) works for safe, affordable energy and the development of a green economy in New York State. Our goal is a prosperous, safe, and healthy New York, fulfilling the promise of conservation, energy efficiency, and safe, clean renewable energy sources to end our state’s reliance on wasteful and environmentally destructive forms of energy. The Alliance works to promote this transition to a carbon-free and nuclear-free future and educates the public about alternatives that can revitalize the economy and safeguard human health and the environment.
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