Dear Governor Cuomo,
We thank you for your leadership at this very difficult time. With New York’s number of coronavirus infections now exceeding 250,000, with 57,000 New Yorkers in the hospital and almost 15,000 deaths, we are facing the worst disaster in the state’s recent history and we don’t know when it will end.
People old and young are fighting for their lives. Hospitals are overloaded and people are dying because of difficulty breathing and lung failure. Your battle to procure ventilators and PPEs for hospitals will help save lives but there is something else important you can do to not worsen the impact of this already disastrous pandemic.
You can exercise your executive power to suspend the closure of Indian Point. We, the undersigned and those who have signed onto this enclosed Change.org petition, urge you to stop this poorly-timed closure and keep New York City’s 2-gigawatt, zero-emission, zero-air pollutant clean energy generation facility operational.
Postponing the shutdown of Indian Point and preventing a surge of new, toxic fossil fuel pollutants from spewing into the air while people are perishing from respiratory failure, is probably the most critical, preventative thing you can do to ease suffering and additional deaths. We already know for sure that air pollution is linked to higher coronavirus death rates, as this Harvard study found.
Furthermore, closing Indian Point now adds unnecessarily to New York City’s vulnerability, just as state resources are stretched thin dealing with the pandemic. Do you really want to add grid fragility and unpredictability to the current crisis, when summer is rapidly approaching and the whole city may have to continue sheltering-in-place indoors? What if there is an extreme and prolonged heat wave?
Wall Street Journal columnist, Peggy Noonan, who is sick with COVID, said it best: “Everything works—and will continue to work—as long as we have electricity. It’s what keeps the lights on, the oxygen flowing, the information going. Everything is the grid, the grid, the grid.” With millions of New Yorkers’ lives dependent upon air-conditioners and/or ventilators, do you really want to arbitrarily shut down our most reliable, clean power source? Extreme weather impacts are already baked in, so chances are days will be hotter this coming summer than any prior year. How much hotter, we don’t know.
Last summer, you oversaw the passage of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. You set New York on a path to reduce emissions by 100 percent—a highly celebrated achievement for you. With your planned, early closure of Indian Point, however, you are replacing New York’s largest source of clean energy with dirty fossil fuel generated power, not renewables. Frankly, this is not the deal that New Yorkers want. You are arbitrarily wasting an asset worth 10s of billions of dollars, shutting off 80 percent of New York’s clean energy, and adding more polluting energy and carbon emissions to boot. This would move us further away from your 0 percent emission vision.
If you want the credit for committing New York to meaningful emissions reduction, you have to do the hard work to prevent the closure of a safe, working, clean power plant. Shutting down Indian Point will reverse decades of progress in both clean air and carbon emissions and violate the vision you signed into law with the CLCPA. It also contravenes the latest scientific findings showing that nuclear power is utterly crucial to our decarbonized future and, frankly, sets another terrible example for the world, which for too long has ignored the scientists’ warnings about the urgency of emissions reductions.
Views about nuclear power have shifted dramatically since the deal to close Indian Point was inked. Germany’s failed and expensive efforts to shutter its nuclear plants and replace them with renewables forced Merkel to have to chop down ancient forests and arrest protesters to dig coal just to avoid blackouts. More scientifically-minded environmental leaders are recognizing that nuclear power is necessary in our fight to address climate change. The Union of Concerned Scientists, The Nature Conservancy, World Resources Institute, National Geographic and others have published revised recommendations regarding nuclear power within the last few years. Nuclear has moved from being viewed negatively to being seen as vital clean technology without which we cannot quickly or cost-effectively eliminate our addiction to fossil fuels. While anti-nuclear rantings may still help groups like NRDC and Riverkeeper raise donations, they reflect obsolete views not supported by the best science or scientists.
You have repeatedly stressed that you listen to healthcare experts to learn how to lessen the spread of Covid-19. We are asking you to also listen to leading climate experts, embrace the latest knowledge and work to bring science laggards along with you. Fortunately, in this instance, doing the right thing for climate aligns with doing the right thing to fight Covid-19 deaths.
Dr. James Hansen, the renowned climate scientist at Columbia’s Earth Institute who first testified to the Senate about the warming impacts of polluting emissions on the climate, recently wrote: “Coronavirus and human-caused climate change are both characterized by a delayed response which makes the problem and its solution more difficult. With the virus the delay time is of order weeks; with climate change the delay is of order generations. In both cases, by the time the effects become obvious, there is a much larger response ‘in the pipeline.’ We are in a race to find remedies in both cases, but the near-term focus on the virus provides a moment to assess the [near-term] actions needed for climate.”
The near-term action we need right now is protecting all sources of clean, reliable energy. As scientists, engineers, doctors, lawyers, environmentalists, businesspeople, mothers and fathers, we urge you to set an example for the whole world by recognizing the need to preserve all of New York’s nuclear power—as critical sources of carbon-free, pollutant-free baseload power. A pandemic is clearly the wrong time to fire up new polluting fossil fuel power but, given the climate crisis, no time is a good time to backtrack on your climate commitments.
We applauded your achievement with NY Renews to put New York on a path to a zero carbon future but New York’s failure to build the new renewables needed to replace Indian Point should have paused the plan to shutter Indian Point, not given life to new sources of fossil fuels. You need to keep your eye on New York’s long-term sustainability—which is deeply threatened by sea level rise and extreme weather events—and allowing fossil fuels to replace Indian Point’s clean generation digs a deeper hole. There is no excuse for this.
Governor Cuomo, you have the executive power to postpone the planned closure of Indian Point and we strongly urge you to do so. We think this issue is of such a critical nature to the long-term health and safety of everyone, that resolving it properly must supersede politics. Given the personal concerns you’ve expressed, we recommend that you impanel a scientific commission of experts to conduct a thorough review of the environmental risks and impacts of shuttering Indian Point and increasing gas usage. We welcome an opportunity to help you better understand the real impacts of closing Indian Point and the scientific and economic bases for nuclear’s critical role in resilient, cost-effective, decarbonized grids that do not take over all our open spaces and also have the juice to power the carbon sequestration New York will need to go from 85 to 100 percent carbon neutral by 2050.
This decision is a matter of life and death for New Yorkers today as well as for billions of people and species already direly impacted by climate change. You say you are a leader that listens to scientists. Millions of New Yorkers—and others around the world—need you to be just that: a leader with the courage to resist business as usual and embrace the scientific knowledge that enables you to protect people and the planet for real. You have the political capital, the talent and the smarts to be that leader. We’re counting on you.
Yours truly,
[The Undersigned Parties: includes those with whom we were in direct contact and additional signers displayed as Commenters below]
UPDATE: EARTH DAY, April 22, 2020
Our letter was delivered to Governor Cuomo with well over 200 signers listed directly on the letter, along with a copy of the petition and a link to a page with the PDF print-out of over 5,600 petitioners’ names and more than a dozen pages of petitioner comments. The petition now has nearly 8,000 signatures, which you can access through our Petition page. We are still accepting signatures and comments below. You can find Press information here. Thank you everyone for your help supporting New York’s largest source of clean energy.
Postscript
The Climate Coalition—a confederation of individuals, environmental groups, climate and clean energy advocates—seeks collaboration towards system-wide fossil fuel and emissions reductions in furtherance of our collective climate goals. We view the bickering over technology preferences as a self-defeating distraction that works at cross-purposes for the whole climate movement. We know our future grid will need all the clean energy it can get to meet the challenge of powering our 21st century lives, while also powering the massive carbon draw-down necessary to restore climate health. Given the ongoing attacks from environmental groups focused on closing clean nuclear rather than dirty fossil fuels, against the clear recommendations of scientific experts, we are called to defend against these irrational acts based upon the technology’s sixty-year record of reliability, its dense, carbon-free and pollution-free energy, its small ecologic footprint and the industry’s commitment to ever-increasing safety.
Signed by:
Directions for signing:
You may add yourself as a signatory on this letter by using the Comment Box below. Please provide your true full name, your degrees, credentials and environmental, academic or profession affiliations as you deem appropriate to be listed. You may also add an optional comment.
MM
| Dr. James Hansen Climate Scientists, Earth Institute, Columbia University, Director of the Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions group. Former Director of the NASA Goddard Institute. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1995. Time Magazine, one of the 100 most influential people of Earth Recipient of the Carl-Gustaf Rossby and Roger Revelle Research Medals Recipient of the Sophie Prize and the Blue Planet Prize Steve Kirsch James E Hopf |
Dr. Joe Lassiter Senator John Heinz Professor of Management Practice in Environmental Management, Harvard Business School, Retired, after a career focused on developing clean, secure and carbon-neutral supplies of reliable, low-cost energy all around the world. Kirsty Gogan Gene Nelson |
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Jennifer Klay |
Valerie Gardner, Climate Coalition Founder |
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Rodney Adams Leonard Rodberg, PhD Dietmar Detering, PhD Paul van Linden Tol |
John Droz, Physicist Isuru Seneviratne Pramilla Malick |
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Stanley J Wetch Anne Calder Keaton Smith, MBA Meredith Angwin Lynn Dollarhide Todd De Ryck |
Gary Kahanak B.S. in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan. Contributor to Climate Coalition Dr. A. Cannara Mike Shatzkin |
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Dan See, BS/MS Civil Engineering, Cal Poly SLO, Licensed PE Alan Medsker, Legislative Outreach Coordinator Generation Atomic Trevor Rix Walter Heenan, MS Computer Science Syracuse University Eric Schmitz |
Keith Schue, MS, BS Electrical Engineering University of Virginia Chris Pragman Reva Hill Rick Maltese, Founder of Energy Reality Project Arthur Pritchard O. Douglas Price |
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Arthur Dwight Hyde, CFA James P. Elliott John ONeill Brian Campbell, BSEE, UMass Lowell Paul Lafreniere Chris R. Melville, chemist Mario Silvestri |
John Kutsch, Executive Director of Thorium Energy Alliance Steven Stamm Eric Meyer, Founder and Executive Director of Generation Atomic and GAMMA, M.A. in Applied Public Policy Rudy Stefenel, caring citizen, retired Electronic Engineer Heather Hoff, co-founder, Mothers for Nuclear Kristen Zaitz, co-founder, Mothers for Nuclear John Hartshorn |
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Trenteny Reed David Watson, Chartered Physicist (CPhys IOP) Damon White, B.E Mechanical – 15 years closely following climate mitigation |
Dr Ben Heard, Founder – Bright New World Neil Rasmussen, MS EE MIT Gerrit Bruhuag, University of Rochester PhD candidate |
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Joel E. Gingold |
Onaje Jackson |
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Rezwan Razani, Founder, Footprint to Wings Rick Janes John Latta Jan Ebenholtz William Gloege George Berka |
Ulrich Krauskopf Dave Watson BSc, MSc Chartered Engineer Steve Dalton Rick DeGolia Jarret Adams Aaron A. Ames William A Lynch Mark Norris |
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Luc VAN DEN DURPEL, PhD. in Nuclear Engineering Sean Ford, BSME Michigan Technological University Victoria Adler, The Queens Climate Project |
George Berka, Aerospace Engineer, Pilot Lenka Kollar, BS, MS Nuclear Engineering, Purdue University Michael Mann, American Nuclear Society Liza Toth Steven Stamm John Cork |
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Steven Smith, Citizen Climate Lobby Matt Sperring Fred Stafford Benjamin Pfitzner Zdenek Ptacek Scott Davis Adam Danilowicz |
Denis Gaborieau
Jonathan Tiemann, President, Tiemann Investment Advisors Paul Beaumont James Magowan, Arboreal Capital LLC James Off Jason Hou, North Carolina State University Ike Bottema |
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Reid Worth Scott Murray Jarret Adams Brian Campbell Kurt Celie Theresa Motko, Entergy |
Brian Brackney Amy Portmore, MD Sandra Stewart Philip Carlson, Rethinking Nuclear Eric Martinez Tony Chen |
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Shashank Anantharam Marie Hansen Michael Carey Peter Bergs |
Dinara Ermakova, UC Berkeley, LBNL John Lindberg Eric Coffin-Gould Chad McKinley, Nuclear Solution Mathijs Beckers Willis Shirk Wendy Tanz Amy Friedberg Mason Friedberg John Harshorn Rebecca Beach Tom Dolan, Virginia-Recycles-SNF Carie Harlow, Third Way Christina Hernandez Allen Frechette Mark Holzmann Nancy Winkler, Sierra Club Claire Menefee Ruth Axtell Narayan Gopinathan Ricki Gardner |
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Freddy Blond Katherine Causin Laura Scheele Jessica Lambert Brant Merryman Norman Scherer Sean Wagner |
Ripudaman Malhotra Norma Scherer David O’Callaghan Andrew Jaremko Eric Brundick Todd De Ryck Mark Duffett |
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[…] Anti-nuclear activists and NY Governor Cuomo want to close Indian Point nuclear plant, which will send NY’s carbon emissions up. If you think that’s crazy, sign this letter to Cuomo! […]
I have a BS in ME and have toured Indian on two occasions and can say that it is safe and necessary for the power grid.
Nuclear energy, particularly new SMR technologies, are needed to meet state and National GHG reduction goals.
Well regulated, well maintained, competently operated nuclear electricity production is a prime tool in the strategy up reduce global carbon dioxide emissions. Prime attributes are:
• small footprint for high energy output
• pollution free
• capable of 24h/year-round generation regardless of environmental extremes
• vastly cheaper fuel costs than oil/gas/coal
• ideally suited to reliable baseline generation.
Shutting down Indian point in the absence of immediately available pollution-free alternatives is not a logical move
S.B. EECS, MIT
[…] działające na rzecz ochrony przyrody, aktywistów klimatycznych i proponentów czystej energii. Climate Coalition prosiła gubernatora w liście o odroczenie zamknięcia reaktora Indian Point, wskazując, że w […]
I support the petition, and regret coming to this site too late to add my signature.
Robert Lance
BA in Biochemistry, Temple University
Manuel Morales
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Class of 2022
Candidate for B.S in Electrical Engineering and Physics
A June 2015 report by a lobby group called Nuclear Energy Institute found that the operation of Indian Point generates $1.3 billion of annual economic output in local counties, $1.6 billion statewide, and $2.5 billion across the United States. In 2014, Entergy paid $30 million in state and local property taxes. The total tax revenue (direct and secondary) was nearly $340 million to local, state, and federal governments.[14] According to the Village of Buchanan budget for 2016-2017, a payment in lieu of taxes in the amount of $2.62 million was received in 2015-2016, and was projected to be $2.62 million in 2016-2017 – the majority of which can be assumed to come from the Indian Point Energy Center.[21]
Over the last decade, the station has maintained a capacity factor of greater than 93 percent. This is consistently higher than the nuclear industry average and than other forms of generation. The reliability helps offset the severe price volatility of other energy sources (e.g., natural gas) and the intermittency of renewable electricity sources (e.g., solar, wind).[14]
Indian Point directly employs about 1,000 full-time workers. This employment creates another 2,800 jobs in the five-county region, and 1,600 in other industries in New York, for a total of 5,400 in-state jobs. Additionally, another 5,300 indirect jobs are created out of state, creating a sum total of 10,700 jobs throughout the United States.[14]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Point_Energy_Center
OK, GreenNewDealers, here’s the ante: 2GW at 93%cf and 10,000 jobs. Go, you have 12-18 months … err 18 hours now.
Donald Calabrese
Manager, Nuclear (Retired) Indian Point
Bachelor’s – NYU; Master’s Pace University
Patent – Post Accident Sampling System @ Indian Point Unit 3
US Patent # – 4446097 – May 1, 1984
Chemist and Materials Scientist
B.S. in Chemistry, Emory University
Wow, Gov, that was SUPER-Long. For me, I’d’ve broken it up a bit: not like you don’t have a lot of things to do!
That said, it’s all true. This ISN’T the time to shut down Indian Point.
You should really stop that from happening.
Thanks!
Just an average Joe, you remember us don’t you, we only built this country and are trying very hard to keep it. So thank you for reading this. Ha
Nuclear power clean reliable and load carrying. 25 yr Nuclear power plant worker. Mother/grandmother. Women in Nuclear member.
Nuclear is the clean energy we need for the future!
University Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Nuclear Engineering at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
PhD in Materials Science, Imperial College London, UK,
Professional Member of Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, UK
Member of Australian Nuclear Association, Australia
Dear Governor Cuomo…,Keeping Indian Point open and running provides immense amounts of low carbon energy which simply cannot easily be made up by RE. It’s just about math. Why start from scratch when NP allows New York to meet its immense energy needs so cleanly and safely?
A lack of power system diversity can cause power shortages in the summer but also in the winter. The average climate is getting warmer but super storms and sudden cold snaps following them can still happen and could be enhanced by unstable jet streams and arctic vortex weather patterns. Such weather possibly related to climate change can include high temperature contrast which can add energy to a rapidly developing winter storm that can reach hurricane strength such as the Blizzard of 78, which was a slow moving super storm with an eye like structure that reached hurricane strength. More recently in 2015 New England was pummeled by multiple storms in an arctic vortex weather pattern causing a record breaking snow season in Boston including the January 2015 North American Blizzard, also called Winter Storm Juno which reached hurricane strength. Such storms can cause power distribution system damage followed by extreme cold. In that situation demand for heating fuel competes with demand for power plant fuel which can cause a shortage of gas and/or fuel oil. Lack of nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuel fired power plants exacerbates this situation.
B.S. Chemistry
As an energy storage scientist, our friends in the Nuclear field are contributing greatly to the fight against climate change and must remain an important part of the solution alongside renewable energy technologies. The inane reasons for the shutdown of Indian Point are ultimately based on the same fear mongering that has been funded by the Fossil Fuel industry and gone completely unopposed since the late 1960’s. Its closure will also disproportionately affect low-income and minority communities in Queens and Harlem due to increased fossil fuel emissions and air pollution from the natural gas plants located in those communities, as well as around the rest of the state. Indian Point must be allowed to operate to the end of its 80 year lifespan, when it can finally be replaced by either advanced nuclear or renewable technologies.
Member of Climate Coalition,
Resident of NYS for 40 years (not currently)
Attended 4 Thorium Energy Alliance Conferences (GenIV nuclear)
Shawn Grannell
Ph.D. Applied Physics, University of Michigan
Renewables are a FRAUD for saving us and the planet.
Please keep Zero Carbon Indian Point running and look at the statistics of real safety Nuclear offers by the WHO reports of deaths from accidents in history. You will be quite surprised by what you see and want to dig deeper like I did 10 years ago when I was an anti Nuclear advocate. I have since turned 180°.
Entergy
Software engineer
Tom Bammann, CEng CPEng RPEng, electrical engineer with 15 years in the electricity industry. Have closely read both sides of the argument for both cessation of existing nuclear plants and for new nuclear technology plants. Have never seen an economically viable, sensible, and readjusting model for preventing climate without assistance (or on fact a major role) from nuclear.
The world has noticed recently how much cleaner the air can be without being fouled with fossil fuels.
Nuclear electricity is an essential part of the solution to our climate challenges.
SB Chemical Engineering, SM and PhD all from MIT. First 18 years in Brooklyn and Queens.
It’s time to make decisions based in science rather than fear.
Michael Pelizzari
Ph.D. in Space Physics and Astronomy from Rice University
BS in Physics from Stevens Institute of Technology
Sierra Club, Life Member
I toured Indian Point Energy Center when I lived in New York State, and the experience convinced me that nuclear power was the only pollution-free way to produce enough electricity to power civilization without destroying the natural world.
Remember, only U can prevent global warming: U-233, U-235 and U-238. Go nuclear or go extinct.
Ethan Bodnaruk
Civil/Environmental Engineer
M.S. Ecological Engineering
M.S. Nuclear Engineering
Volunteer, Citizens’ Climate Lobby
Member, Nuclear NY
Shutting down Indian Point is eliminating downstate NY’s biggest source of carbon-free electricity, and fracked natural gas is mostly filling the void. This is unacceptable given NY’s commitment to get off fossil fuels and protect the air quality of its residents.
Thomas Kurhajetz
Director of Operations of Virginia Program Office for Recycling & Disposition of Used/Spent Nuclear Fuel
Climate Coalition member
Member Californians for Green Nuclear Power
Ph.D. In Engineering, UC Berkeley
President, Californians for Green Nuclear Power
Energy companies in California, eager to capitalize on sales of fossil fuel in our state’s deregulated power market, succeeded in closing San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 2013. But times have changed, and as the public gains a greater understanding of nuclear energy’s enormous potential for fighting climate change, these efforts are now encountering resistance to closing our one remaining nuclear plant, Diablo Canyon, by 2025.
Top climate scientists have made it abundantly clear: nuclear power paves the only viable path forward on climate change. Thus, by keeping Indian Point open, New York is uniquely poised to set an example of environmental stewardship for years to come. It’s time to set misperceptions about nuclear energy aside, and respect the science.
Electrical engineer, working for ANSTO. Experience in power sector and nuclear sector. Masters student in sustainable energy.
Dear Governor Cuomo, Your handling of the pandemic has been wonderful. I hope you realize that keeping Indian Point running would be equally wonderful. Please do not succumb to the irrational fear of radiation and listen to us nuclear scientists who know how safe and clean nuclear power is.
Dr. James Conca, Trustee of the Herbert M. Parker Foundation, Affiliate Scientist Los Alamos National Laboratory
Senior Scientist, UFA Ventures, Inc., Forbes.com Science Contributor
2801 Appaloosa Way
Richland, WA 99352
509-205-7541
jim@ufaventures.com
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/
Governor Cuomo,
The early retirement of the Indian Point Nuclear Plant is a mistake if you believe, as you have stated numerous times, that climate change is a threat to the world. Indian Point generates 2000 MW of clean energy year round for the state of NY. Closing Indian Point in 2021 would require that power to be replaced by fossil fuels, adding to the crisis of global climate change.
The concern of continued operation of Indian Point is misplaced. Statements regarding the risk of the plant being so close to NYC are overblown. Nuclear plants are required by law to continually assess the risk of operation under the Probabalistic Risk Assessment program. This takes into account the operating condition of the facility, including any equipment that might be out of service. This is input into a calculation that assesses the comprehensive risk of a core damaging accident occurring or of a large release of radioactivity occurring.
This program is mandated by law and is enforced by the NRC. If risk is determined to be too high, the plant will be shutdown and cooled down to the safest possible condition.
So, what is too high when it comes to risk? The normal, everyday assessed risk of an accident occurring is approximately once every million or so years. The risk of a large release of radioactivity that would impact NYC is closer to every ten or hundred million years. To say that the plant poses a risk to the city of New York is to place that risk on the same level as an asteroid impact of a tsunami.. If that risk were to raise to a level of even once every thousand years, the plant would take legally required action to place the reactors in a safer condition.
The other side of this equation is the risk of replacing the massive power supplied from Indian Point with fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are deadly, even when climate change is not taken into account. The number of excess deaths that resulted from the closure of all of Japan’s nuclear plants following the Tohoku earthquake in 2011 was thousands of times higher than any deaths that can be even possibly attributed to radiation, due almost entirely to an excessive evacuation and replacing that power with coal and gas. To this date there has been one acknowledged death by the Japanese government as a direct result of the Fukushima disaster.
Simply put, the act of closing the Indian Point facility will result in additional pollution and warming, both of which will result in illness and death that would not have happened otherwise. The NRC has inspected Indian Point thoroughly and has determined that it is safe to operate the two units until 2033 & 2035. By closing it down New York will lose a significant portion of it’s low-carbon energy and will be forced to replace that power with fossil fuels. This will also result in the loss of over a billion dollars of economic input to the state of New York, and a loss of over $350 million in taxes that are paid to the state and local authorities.
Governor Cuomo, during the COVID-19 pandemic you have proven to be a man who is willing to do what is right in a difficult circumstance and to fight for your people. I respect that. I served in the US Navy and operated nuclear reactors onboard our submarines. Since being honorably discharged I have spent over ten years training operators to safely run nuclear plants and operating them myself. I, with better knowledge than most of the people who oppose nuclear power, believe it is safe and reliable. I believe it is the bridge to a future of clean energy using renewable sources that will halt climate change in its tracks. To throw away 2000MW of clean power because people who don’t understand the science and engineering that keeps their lights on is foolhardy in the extreme.
Thank you for your consideration,
Bryan Wooster
Senior Licensed Operator Certified Instructor
Dr. Robert M Versluis, US Dept of Energy, Retired
PhD University of Florida, 1970
MsC Delft University of Technology, 1965
Jan Thompson, Brooklyn, NY
I don’t like nuclear energy, but I dislike fossil fuels even more. We must keep “clean” nuclear power as a stopgap only until we can get more green power online. This should be our #1 priority after protecting the community and creating a free vaccine for Covid-19.
Keep Indian Point open. Clean energy is needed!
It is technically impossible to slow Climate Change, not to mention reversing it, without Nuclear. Keep Indian Point running. Stimulate bringing on line Advanced Nuclear Generation IV designs. Advanced Nuclear makes old pressurized water cooled nuclear plants politically and economically moot.
Rod Coenen, retired, Institutional Architect and Planner advocating for a sustainable planet Earth.
I also believe that without nuclear we can kiss the planet goodbye. Please use your leadership about this matter as responsibly as you have been dealing with Covid 19.
Sincerely,
Isabel Maxwell
Technology Pioneer, World Economic Forum
Global Ambassador, Shared Studios
BA (Oxon) St Hilda’s College, Oxford University
Dip Ed Edinburgh
/s/ Joseph M. Wilson, JD, MPA, MSEd
NYC resident
NYC employer
Charles Cohen, Naval Nuclear Laboratory Nuclear Engineer
Former Nuclear Electronics Technician Second Class, USN
MEng Nuclear Engineering, Pennsylvania State University
BS Nuclear Engineering, University of Florida
BS Physics, University of Florida
Shuttering Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant will result in a meager increase in renewable electricity generation and a massive increase in burning methane gas. The resulting air pollution and increased price of electricity when that gas is affected by a long overdue carbon tax will be a disaster for the most vulnerable communities.
Dear Governor Cuomo – Please keep Indian Point in operation, at least until there is a viable, clean alternative which is many years away. Closing our biggest source of carbon-free energy would be a devastating step backwards. Please keep NY on track to lead and stay aligned with CLCPA!
Dennis Higgins MA Mathematics, MS Computer Science.
Dear Governor, I have written you often over the last decade as all of us work to reduce pollution in NYS and the US, and globally, and to cut carbon equivalent emission to preserve a planet for our children, and all the other life on earth. There is ample reason to extend the life of Indian Point I and II. The health crisis makes it clear that we must limit air pollution locally, safeguard energy supplies downstate, and, in a broader sense, reduce NYS CO2E emissions both for CLCPA targets and the worsening climate crisis. None of these conditions existed to this degree when IP shutdown was planned years ago. IP has proven itself capable of reliably providing 2100MW of electricity to the downstate region. We should keep it running.
Nuclear power is one of the best tools we’ve got to fight climate change. Save Indian Point; save the planet! -Born and raised New York Stater, living in Brooklyn
We need all the zero carbon output we can, it should be criminal to remove such a large and reliable source.
Jeffrey Mahn
BS Nuclear Engineering
MS Nuclear Engineering
Member, American Nuclear Society
Governor Cuomo, if you are truly concerned about the health and well-being of your constituents, you would support nuclear power and oppose the closure of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant. If you wanted abundant, affordable, and reliable (and clean) energy for your constituents, then you would support nuclear power.
In 60 years of civilian nuclear power in the U.S., not a single person has been seriously hurt by a radiation release from a nuclear power plant. Nor has anyone been hurt by nuclear waste (AKA spent nuclear fuel) during this time. The fact is, nuclear is the SAFEST major source of energy in the U.S. and continues to provide 55% of our emissions free energy. Shutting down Indian Point to appease the hysteria of a small minority is harmful to our attempts to mitigate climate change. It’s also harmful to New York residents’ health due to increased air pollution. As has been made clear with past nuclear plant shutdowns, including shuttering Vermont Yankee, renewables will not replace Indian Point; natural gas will.
Closing Indian Point also runs contrary to climate mitigation scenarios described by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which makes clear that we need to at least quintuple current levels of nuclear power over the coming decades, not shut down nuclear power.
Please make the right choice for public health and climate mitigation. Keep Indian Point open!
David Tremain
550 Flintlock Lane
Oakville MO
63129
314-303-4897
Rethink closing Indian Pt. NPP
it’s a necessary fuel system
Joshua S. Goldstein, professor emeritus of International Relations, American University
Ph.D., MIT
BA, Stanford
Author of “A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow”
Robert J. McAfee, Climatologist (MSc. University of Wisconsin – Madison.
Dear Governor Cuomo,
Having deep roots in western NY from birth, as well as working as an engineer in the nuclear industry for over 40 years, I respectfully request you to keep the Indian Point reactors operating. NY would be able to continue to greatly benefit from this source of clean energy especially in light of climate change. The amount of hydro-, solar-, and wind-powered generation (i.e., other low carbon sources of power) needed to replace the Indian Point units is nearly astronomical.
Please discuss nuclear power with experts in the energy field. The advantages of nuclear power throughout the entire life-cycle of the plant and fuel are evident when all evidence is considered. Nuclear is safe, clean, and economical (in the long-run), and as the IP units are already operating, there are no initial capital costs as there will be for sources to replace the lost generating capacity.
Thank you,
Dear Governor Cuomo,
I am a founding member of the Queens Climate Project, a community group of concerned citizens who are pushing the city and state to take action to mitigate climate change. I am also a NYC public school teacher. I feel strongly that New York State needs to use ALL forms of clean energy – including nuclear – to meet its clean energy targets stated in the CLCPA. The only way to make ourselves completely independent from fossil fuel is nuclear. I believe that solar/wind/other renewables should also be developed along with nuclear, but we should not try to rely entirely on these to close the gap; additionally, we should not rely on importing hydroelectric power from Canada. We need a reliable local clean energy source. Nuclear might not have the best public image, but it’s safe and clean. Keep Indian Point open!!
Governor Cuomo, I find it hard to believe that you are are as uninformed as not not to know that nuclear is CO2-free and the safest of all energy sources. Kowtowing to prejudice is shameful and immoral.
Don’t close clean energy, nuclear is the only base load low carbon energy
Dear Governor,
This loss of this plant will be equivalent to shutting every wind and solar plant in my whole country. As I and my organisation fight to allow these technologies to be permitted in Australia, please, don’t let us take this step backwards in our global efforts.
Sincerely,
Dr Ben Heard
Founder – Bright New World
MEng Chemical Engineering – University College London and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
MSc Advanced Nuclear Engineering – Imperial College London
Site Restoration Engineer and Project Engineer
PhD. in Nuclear Engineering
International Expert in energy systems and nuclear energy scenarios
Managing Director Nuclear-21
Former OECD Nuclear Energy Agency Administrator
Former R&D Director AREVA
Vice-Chair International Committee of American Nuclear Society
Today’s international developments ask all of us to be more effective in resource-use, being it materials, energy, or Human Resources to be able to maximise the critical resources needed when major environmental/societal/health challenges are to be faced. Energy supply security at a competitive cost and, above all, environmentally clean is a base objective for all modern societies and especially a duty for developed countries having the resources and means to apply best available technologies providing energy at lowest environmental impact while guaranteeing continuous and robust energy generation. Nuclear energy is a key contributor to such robust energy system and early closure of safe nuclear power plants at Indian Point is the worst decision one may take and introduces additional risks to New York and its society and economy for years to come.
Governor,
The brightest minds of our generation see plants like Indian Point as vital to our future. You have listened to experts to deal with the Covid crisis. Please listen to the experts on energy and climate change.
Ryan Coogan
MS Nuclear Engineering, Texas A&M
BSME Michigan Technological University
Licensed Professional Mechanical Engineer in many states and Canadian Provinces
ASME member
NSPE member
ANS member
18 years of experience in the energy field working on everything from oil refineries to nuclear powered submarines. Indian Point is a valuable asset providing safe, clean, reliable power to New York. Please respect the science and keep this power plant open.
Keith Schue, MS, BS Electrical Engineering University of Virginia
The New York Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act requires that the state achieve 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040. That will not happen by eliminating downstate New York’s largest source of reliable, carbon-free baseload electricity. Meeting New York’s climate and energy goals will require more nuclear power, not less.
The peaceful use of nuclear energy is essential to any real-world strategy for combatting climate change.
The world’s top four climate scientists, Dr. James Hansen, Dr. Tom Wigley, Dr. Ken Caldeira and Dr. Kerry Emanuel, stressed that only a combined strategy of employing all the major sustainable clean energy options, including renewables, nuclear, efficiency and conservation, can prevent the worst effects of climate change by the end of this century.
Please do your part to save this industry and our environment by NOT closing anymore nuclear power plants. Thank you
Please change your direction on this it’s totally wrong. Nuclear is the safest energy source on earth and the only one abundant enough to power the world into the future. Stop the fear mongering about nuclear and stick with the science and all those in science who support it.
Don’t eliminate New York’s most important source of clean energy.
Don’t risk unbalancing the grid during the current public health emergency.
And learn about the nuclear power technologies that will take us into the next generation
Jonathan Tiemann
President, Tiemann Investment Advisors
Denis GABORIEAU
Mechanical Engineer
keep Indian Point open until you have similar Power generated from Renewable +Storage – It is imperative we move to zero emissions as soon as possible
Nuclear energy is the only form of energy that the future generations can depend on.
it is only improving.
In fighting climate change and this pandemic, we need all of the tools that we have. Including nuclear energy, including Indian Point.
– Lenka Kollar
BS, MS Nuclear Engineering, Purdue University
Thanks for your support, Lenka! Great to hear from you.
Nuclear energy is the lowest carbon emission energy that exists
Dear Governor Cuomo,
Please make the right decision at this important juncture, and preserve Indian Point, New York City’s largest source of clean, reliable, and carbon-free power. History will certainly thank you for it! It is not too late.
Regards,
-George Berka,
Aerospace Engineer, Pilot, Author of Petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to Allow Shuttered Nuclear Power Reactors to Re-start
Dear Governor Cuomo,
as a UK resident, we see you daily on our news bulletins on the BBC providing superb leadership in the fight against the Covid-19 virus in New York. We empathise with your struggles dealing with our common enemy.
Our other common enemy is the inexorable rise in atmospheric CO2 from the combustion of fossil fuels, including natural gas, leading to climate disruption the like of which this planet hasn’t seen in the whole of human existence. Any option that reduces the emission of this gas is vital as emissions anywhere in the world affect us all world-wide.
On behalf of all of us concerned about climate change in the UK, I would urge you to revisit the intent to permanently shut down Indian Point nuclear plant. Its electricity production, amounting to 40% of NYC’s demand, is CO2-free and of greater benefit to the grid, being always on at 100% output [outside of refuelling outages planned years in advance], than several times its rated output from unreliable renewable sources.
Having spent most of my career as an engineer and manager in nuclear plants, I understand the politics around them however, the battle against runaway climate change is more important than politics as usual. Please do whatever is within your authority to keep this plant running – it’s the right thing to do.
William Lynch
D.Eng/EE University of Massachusetts Lowell
Premature closure of nuclear power plants is likely to cause significant greenhouse gas emission and particulate pollution increases especially when most planned replacements are dual fuel natural gas and fuel oil fired power plants. Renewable energy systems with significant capacity and energy storage can take a long time to complete. It seems very risky to depend mostly on supplies of only a few types of energy such as natural gas and fuel oil. Surplus amounts of such fuels are currently available however shortages can occur during extreme heatwaves or extreme cold weather. Arctic vortex weather patterns with sharp temperature contrast can enable development of super storms followed by extreme cold. In that case heating fuel demand would compete with fuel needs of fossil fuel fired power plants.
Dear Governor Cuomo,
Shutting down atomic energy production and replacing it with carbon producing generation or relatively inefficient solar / wind production doesn’t make sense. Please use your unique position and platform to educate the public about the benefits of atomic energy instead of caving to the pressure of the uninformed. Big picture thinking and leadership is making a difference in our current health emergency and can make a longer term difference as well.
I am far from New York, but spent my childhood near atomic energy in Arco, Idaho. As an adult I work in the energy sector as an information analyst with all types of energy production and delivery projects. The culture I grew up in and my education agree, atomic energy is the safest, most reliable, most efficient, and least detrimental means of power production. It need to grow, not shrink.
Much respect,
Aaron
Without nuclear we can kiss the planet goodbye.
Keep your clean air and reliable electric power.
Dear Governor Cuomo,
I urge you to demonstrate scientifically-sound environmental and energy policy by keeping the Indian Point powerplant in operation. I further urge your constituents, indeed citizens everywhere, to re-examine their own anti-nuclear beliefs under the light of sound climate science. Irrational fears are not protecting planet Earth, they are endangering it.
All of us here greatly appreciate your consideration in this perilous time.
Sincerely,
Rick Janes
This single plant closure will remove much more carbon free energy than ALL the installed wind and solar in NY. A tremendous and unnecessary setback.
MS EE MIT
Former CTO, American Power Conversion Corp
Common Sense
Onaje Jackson
President / Founder, Sustainable Systems & Design Int’l (SSDI)
Coordinator, Yale Blue Green Sustainability Initiative
8-yr Member, American Solar Energy Society, Board of Directors
M.Arch/MCP – Energy Lab, MIT
BA, Yale College, Yale University
Practicing Consulting Nuclear Engineer for nearly sixty years
B.E.E., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
M.S., Nuclear Engineering, New York University
Member, Sustainability Committee, Village of Croton-on-Hudson
Environment/Climate Chair, CCoHOPE Indivisible
The continued operation of Indian Point is critical to our goal of reducing our carbon emissions. Nuclear plants operate at capacity factors exceeding 90%, while wind and solar facilities have experienced capacity factors below 40%, and there is relatively little such power available in NY. A much more sensible program would keep existing nuclear facilities in operation as long as possible and use new wind and solar capacity, as well as hydro power delivered by CHPE (whenever that may be completed), to reduce the amount of electricity generated by natural gas and coal.
Rezwan Razani
Founder, Footprint to Wings
MRP, Cornell University, College of Art, Architecture & Planning
BA Environmental Science, University of California, Berkeley
Closing nuclear power plants prematurely is madness and is contributing to increased emissions and unnecessary deaths. Don’t allow this to happen.
David Watson, BSc, MSc Chartered Engineer.
Keep nuclear open to reduce CO2
Shutting down Indian Point will increase New York’s carbon emissions tremendously. The future will not look kindly on those who fought against clean power.
Gerrit Bruhaug
University of Rochester PhD candidate
B.S. Nuclear Engineering Idaho State University
B.S. Physics Idaho State University
former nuclear reactor operator
I don’t agree with shutting down a perfectly good power plant. I have visited the Indian Point plant several times and it was a pleasure and a privilege to work with such dedicated professionals. They deserve to continue their work. New York needs this clean source of energy.
B.E Mechanical – 15 years closely following climate mitigation
Prematurely shuttering nuclear plants when we’re in climate crisis AND a pandemic will unnecessarily put New York’s citizens at risk. Indian Point can be saved. Additional air pollution and climate change deaths can be prevented. It’s never too late to realize you’ve made a mistake.
Be brave. Make a stand. Embrace science, not populist fear.
David Watson
Chartered Physicist (CPhys IOP)
MPhys Physics, University of Manchester (UK)
Comms Advisor, Generation Atomic
Trenteny Reed, caring citizen
Bachelor’s Degree in Health, Gannon University
NYS notary public
NYS commercial driver
Lead Steward – Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers, Stop spread of invasive species 2017
Dear Governor Cuomo,
In Athens NY the plan to construct and obstruct air pollution was stricken down due to the voices of concerned folks this year. And now the Covid-19 has had dangerous affects on the entire nation and world; and adding the closure of unit 2 will only exacerbate problems this year. Advocates agree with the closure of Indian Point Nuclear facility but evidence shows that when facilities like this close, many poisonous emissions are released as a by product of closing down. So although many of us want to see this close but, we feel waiting till after this horrific pandemic. Please consider this the ball is in your court.
Thank you for your consideration.
This isn’t the time to shut down a safely-operating nuclear facility. As an energy specialist and environmentalist, I encourage you to keep it open until we have sustainable alterantives.
I am 39 year career nuclear professional, currently working as a Senior Consultant on the Vogtle project units 3 & new nuclear builds (Westinghouse AP1000 GEN 3+ Advanced Passive Reactors) in Waynesboro, GA. Shutting any energy source, in particular nuclear because of its base load capacity and clean energy source, should not even be discussed at this critical juncture during the coronavirus pandemic. Nuclear energy is an important asset and is a vital part of the US infrastructure, which the health care system urgently needs now and in the future to continue the fight against the deadly COVID-19 virus. Do NOT shut down Indian Power nuclear generating station now, when it is needed most or any time prior to its scheduled end of product life cycle shutdown.
Arthur Dwight Hyde, CFA
Jennifer Klay
Professor of Physics, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
MS, PhD, Nuclear Physics, University of California, Davis
BS, Astrophysics, University of California, Los Angeles
Bachelor’s in physics from MIT, Masters in Nuclear Engineering from UT Austin.
I am a retired nuclear engineer with 25 years of experience.
Indian Point is not being replaced with renewables. It’s being replaced with new gas generation. This decision belies any genuine concern about global warming, or air pollution. We should be maintaining all non-emitting power sources. New fossil generation should not be built. New renewable generation must be used to replace fossil fuels, not other non-emitting sources like nuclear! This decision will result in increased CO2 emissions, increased air pollution, and increased power costs.
Please take advantage of this opportunity to extend the productive life of the Indian Point nuclear plants for the maximum legally permitted time span of five years. Especially now, shutting down a source of reliable clean power flies in the face of reason if we are serious about slowing climate change and giving the citizens of New York and surrounding areas the cleanest possible air.
As mothers who care for the future of humanity and our planet, we support nuclear energy. It is our best hope for lowering emissions, combatting climate change, and providing reliable electricity.
If Indian Point closes, power will be replaced primarily with fracked natural gas. This is a step in the wrong direction, and it makes no sense to shot down a clean power source and replace it with a dirty one.
My name is Rudy Stefenel. I am mainly a caring citizen who wants the covid-19 crisis and climate crisis both resolved. Also I am retired Electronic Engineer and I have run two auto repair shops in the past.
I have an alternative motive for this message and that is that I want humanity to be powered by mostly by nuclear reactors and a lot less by fossil fuels even when there is no covid-19 crisis. Even if I did not have an alternative motive, with clear thinking, I say that NOW would be a terrible time to shut down Indian Point Nuclear Plant.
You don’t need two “BLACK SWANS” now that that you and others have worked so hard to get control of the covid-19 crisis with intentions to eventually stop it. Closing down Indian Point any time soon will put many hundreds more people out of work at a worse time. Think of the disruption it will cause because surely moving to other power sources can’t possibly go smoothly right now.
Hey, you got brains, you care, you have backbone, and lots of experience as a leader. You have what it takes to stop the closure of Indian Point at the very worse time.
The ball is in your court.
I am a retired mechanical engineer that spent over 40 years in the design, construction, and evaluation of power plants including nuclear plants. The absolute worst thing we could do a this time would be to shutdown operating nuclear plants that could continue to operate safely for years. Even the most fervent environmentalists admit that their is no clean option for base load power other than nuclear today. Why increase electrical generation outage risk and increase environmental contamination in the middle of a pandemic that impacts lung function.
NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO DO THIS
Dear Governor Cuomo,
The city and state of New York are loved and admired by millions of people around the world, as far away as here in Italy. To an engineering student and environmentalist like myself, New York is all the more special since a large part of what its subway trains and pizza places run on comes from clean sources, which consist essentially of the endangered Indian Point power station.
It is not too late to save this important bit of infrastructure. Don’t let New York State lose a major source of STEM and blue collar union jobs, don’t let the grid lose a pillar of its stability that generates such a large part of NY’s carbon-free power!
Mario Silvestri
Graduate student, B. Sc. in Energy Engineering, University of Padua, Italy
Thank you Governor Coumo for the years of good governance. Please however, for the sake of our shared atmosphere and energy security, stop the closure of Indian Point NPP immediately. Thank you.
Chris Melville, Chemist
When you are in a hole, stop digging! Keep a safe, zero-emissions nuclear plant in service until you can provide a proven solution that has scaled to provide cleaner and more cost-effective performance over decades. Respectfully, it may be constructive to take a hard look at the impacts of recent nuclear plant shutdowns on GHGs, other emissions, wildlife, land sprawl and the cost of electricity.
The destruction of the number one source of clean energy in New York would be a dereliction of duty. Your job is to keep the state prosperous and safe. New York will loose Billions, and the ensuing Rolling blackouts will kill New Yorkers who need electricity. Do the right thing!
Keep Indian Point open until 2024 – At Least. The Alternative is to buy electricity from Canada, or to burn gas and pollute your population. Either way, you will make New York Poor and Dirty and Dangerous or: You can make New York Prosperous, Clean and Safe
John Kutsch
Executive Director
Thorium Energy Alliance
BRIAN CAMPBELL BSEE UMASS LOWELL
At this moment, the New York Independent System Operator, the state’s power grid, is getting 32% of its power from nuclear, 0.66% from wind, and 0% from solar, hydro storage, or battery storage. https://www.electricitymap.org/?countryCode=US-NY-NYIS&page=country
AB, Dartmouth College, mathematics
PhD, Brown University, physics
Author, Thorium: energy cheaper than coal
Member, Scientists for Accurate Radiation Information
Co-founder, ThorCon International
Discussion leader, Osher at Dartmouth, energy policy
You are never too busy for this. I was raised on long island, new york.
MS Computer Science
Syracuse University
Also, for what it’s worth, I live in the Hudson Valley
Prematurely shutting zero GHG emitting Nuclear Power Plants is stupid, if one is serious about combatting Anthropogenic Global Warming, because as in all other cases of when NPP’s are shut, (When not replaced by another NPP) more GHG emitting Fuels are burnt to replace it. Shutting Indian Point NPP will lead to more air pollution, which is particularly stupid at a time when there is much concern about a respiratory disease, pandemic. Split, don’t emit.
Indian Point is safe because it’s American. They are ridiculously over-regulated because American regulators have been giving into the pressure from lobbyists backed by fossil fuel industry. What I try to explain to people is that most of us are terrible as weighing risks. The only risk related to Indian Point is shutting it down. You risk adding pollution. You risk causing more illness and deaths. You risk increasing the cost of electricity. You risk releasing more CO2 to the air. The World is gradually realizing we need an atomic era. The benefits far outweigh the risks. That’s a fact.
Rick Maltese. Founder of Energy Reality Project
Indian Point is one of the, if not the single, largest sources of low carbon electricity in the state of New York. Closing the plant puts greenhouse gas emissions goals for the state in serious jeopardy. New York is seen as a role model around the world for its efforts to address climate change. Your administration has recognized the need for nuclear power in other parts of the state. Please reverse the planned closure of Indian Point. The state and the world cannot afford to lose more clean, low carbon generation.
BS/MS Electrical Engineering, M.I.T.
Environmental Philanthropist
It is imperative we move to zero emissions as soon as possible. Closing down nuclear plants would be the VERY last thing you’d want to do, not the first thing. I don’t understand the logic.
Pandering to fossil fuel interests sooooo transparent. Conscience? Anyone in power out there? Can you hear the cries of those who’ve lost loved ones to AIR POLLUTION??????
Closing Indian Point is exactly the wrong thing to do at this moment. It will lead to more ghg emissions.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calls for an expansion of nuclear energy in all of its decarbonization modeling. The IPCC and National Renewables Energy Lab (NREL) rate nuclear (and wind) as the lowest lifecycle emissions of all generation resources, but with nuclear’s ~3x huger capacity factor, it needs much less backup from dispatchable sources (like natural gas) than wind. Prematurely shutting down Indian Point is an environmental tragedy you can and must act to prevent.
Closing Indian Point will increase GHG emissions.
Governor, if you are truly committed to public health, climate action, clean energy, and especially clean government, there is only one responsible, rational, and scientifically informed choice; keep Indian Point open. Preserve our state’s second-largest single source of carbon-free power. Do not sacrifice New york lives and our children’s future! Love New York; Don’t frack it up.
Pramilla Malick, Chair Protect Orange County
Rod Adams
Publisher, Atomic Insights
Host and producer, The Atomic Show Podcast
Managing Member, Nucleation Capital
CDR USN (ret)
Legislative Outreach Coordinator
Generation Atomic
Nuclear power is centrally vital to our climate solutions. Please do not close this perfectly good, paid for, and clean source of energy.
Whenever nuclear power plants are shut, GHG emissions and air pollution increase, we need to decrease these. Therefore, keep Indian Point open and burn less fossil fuels.
Governor Cuomo, we know your heart is in the right place on this. Nuclear energy has a mixed reputation, but when greenhouse gas is the most immediate threat to our climate, please don’t shut down a plant that creates large quantities of energy without contributing to our air pollution. Let’s treasure Indian Point, and when we’ve moved entirely away from inferior energy sources like coal and gas, come back to improve upon our nuclear facility.
Governor Cuomo,
Alicia Barton of NYSERDA states in her strategic plan for 2018– “Governor Cuomo’s nation leading Green New Deal and the New York State Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) have been at the forefront of creating the framework needed to lower carbon emissions and advance a clean energy future.” Now how does a ‘no nonsense, tell it like it is’ leader like you even consider closing down New York’s undisputed number one Clean Energy source and turn the spigot of fossil fuels right back on? How can you ever meet the States goals in the CLCPA if political expediency takes precedence over Facts and Science?
Yes it’s hard to lead. But, in this case — the Emissions dictate our actions and decisions — just like the Virus does. Show the world you mean it when you say you want to be a model for Climate Change.
Electrical Engineer, Energy & Computer Systems Consultant
BSEE Lehigh U.
MS Statistics Stanford U.
MSEE & Degree of Engineer Stanford U.
PhD Math. Methods in research Stanford U.
Member: AAAS, IEEE
Founder and Executive Director of Generation Atomic and GAMMA, M.A. in Applied Public Policy
Closing Indian Point is an environmental tragedy. For our air quality today, and our climate tomorrow– we must save it.
Closing Indian Point (and other nuclear power plants) will adversely affect being able to produce emissions free energy. Please keep it open.
Without Indian Point, New York air quality will degrade as a mixture of natural gas (when available) and oil (when the gas just isn’t there) replace the clean power of that powerful plant. Don’t let this happen! Especially, don’t lett this happen now, when a new and often-fatal respiratory disease is in New York!
Without nuclear, including Indian Point, New York will not be able to meet its climate goals.
The true test of a leader is whether new information can enable a course correction. We must NOT add to CO2 and you know that. Shutting either, let alone both, IP reactors will inevitably do that. To say otherwise is, at the very least, disingenuous. Please allow the emergency extension for the sake of our air and our temperate planet.
No Green New deal without Nuclear, fight CO2 instead of green Fission
There is no legitimate environmental or economic reason to shut down the Indian Point nuclear facilities.
John Droz, Jr.
Physicist
Brantingham Lake, NY
BS Biophysics Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
Ph.D. Radiation Biophysics SUNY Buffalo
Since 2016, Legal Assistant for CPUC and FERC Intervenor Californians for Green Nuclear Power, Inc. The focus of CGNP’s pro-nuclear power advocacy is saving Diablo Canyon Power Plant. We see that saving Indian Point on public health grounds will provide a precedent for saving Diablo Canyon. Please email me at government [at] CGNP dot org.
Carefully cultivated fears are making the shutdown of Indian Point look like a political win. However, those fears are based on lies. Instead of taking on clean power, we want you, Governor Cuomo, to take on those lies and shut down polluting plants in Orange County, Dutchess County, and New York City instead of Indian Point. Gas- and oil-burning plants harm the climate, their particulate emissions kill your people, and their dependence on just-in-time fuel delivery exposes NYC to the risk of blackouts should the gas delivery get disrupted. Preserve clean power and shut down pollution to make New York more resilient and get closer to our nation-leading climate policy goals.
Keaton Smith, MBA
Dear Governor Cuomo, Agreed, you’re playing the “America’s Governor” part very well, and your dedication to saving lives during the pandemic is truly impressive. What’s more, your varied accomplishments to advance New York state’s progress in many valuable directions deserves the applause you receive at your annual state of the state addresses. But regretfully, your long standing and deeply-held antipathy toward Indian Point by shutting it down and practically pounding your chest in victory is appalling, considering the truly colossal quantities of clean, reliable power its supplied to downstate New York over the 47 years of its operation.
No other power source outside of nuclear energy can equal this feat –and save countless lives, as well. Consider the gas power plants that will replace Indian Point, and the harm their emissions will do to air quality and the environment. Deaths from this pollution will result. Are you willing to accept their blood on your hands? Wind farms, offshore and on, and the solar farms you promise will provide ‘clean’ energy are a fiction; ask any reliable engineer or scientist who’s facts, data and evidence prove otherwise.
What’s more, you should know better with respect to the myths used to attack Indian Point, as propagated by anti-nuclear foamers, to which you evidently subscribe and use to your agenda’s benefit. Now that the Covid-19 pandemic conveniently eclipses your act of shutting down the first of these two beneficial reactors, we can only imagine you’re breathing a sigh of relief that it won’t get much attention. But that honeymoon won’t last long when New York’s increased greenhouse gas emissions and adverse health statistics point to the actions you’re about to take.
We can only wish you the wisdom to pause and reflect at this eleventh hour. Listen to the experts, not the fear-mongering, AND the oil and gas industry lobbyists. In the end, your reputation and legacy may rest on what may likely prove to be your greatest error, should you follow through with a blind determination to fulfill your Ahab-like obsession to kill Indian Point.
BA. Amherst College (cum laude). Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting (FSA)-accredited. Graduate studies at Harvard University Extension School.
Shutting 80% of downstate clean electricity generation is moving New York decades backward on our climate goals, hurts communities around the fossil generation plants that will ramp up after Indian Point’s closure, and increases the system cost of reducing carbon emissions. While reducing climate impacts of electricity generation is paramount, as a ratepayer and taxpayer in New York, I disapprove of NY only procuring variable renewable generation from offshore wind at $160/MWh while wasting the lowest cost means to reduce emissions — nuclear generation (multi-unit nuclear $29+/MWh and single-unit nuclear $42+/MWh). Just as the dangers of particulate matter pollution become clearer in this pandemic, the State is about to expose millions to higher pollution from fossil fuels.
B.S. in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan. Contributor to Climate Coalition.
Ideology, personal preferences and wishful thinking have no place in climate and energy policy. We need to be objective about the pros and cons of each energy source, and deploy them according to their individual merits. Our responses and actions must be commensurate with the scale of the climate and energy challenge before us. Science, evidence and expert opinion say Indian Point Energy Center is a valuable asset, providing safe, reliable power to downstate New York, while aligning with the state’s climate goals. Respect the science.
Valerie Gardner, Climate Coalition Founder
Managing Partner, Nucleation Capital
Co-Founder and Principal, Tiemann Investment Advisors
Member, Yale Blue Green Sustainability Initiative
Former chair, Atherton Environmental Programs Committee
MBA, Yale School of Management; JD, NULS
BA, Colgate University Chemistry/English
New Rochelle High School
For climate for science for technology for medicine, for electric power, keep nuclear going.
It is by far not valued high enough.