New York City Energy Shortage Projected: Nuclear & "Clean Coal" Proposed As Solution By "Some Experts"
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 02. 3.08
In light of a state-projected energy shortage, New York needs an expansion of nuclear power; and, it's a near-"silver bullet" solution, according to an ex-Greenpeace expert. This, from a breakfast-talk held in the New York State Capital of Albany.
State energy experts forecast a shortfall of electricity in the state by 2012, especially in the New York City area.
A greenfield nuclear generation station would take around 10 years to plan, design, site, permit, and build. It'd have to be an existing site expansion if the solution is to be timely.
This next part is complex; but stick with us, please, because we think you'll find the plot fascinating.
This year, Gov. Eliot Spitzer has made passing a new power plant siting law [Article 10] a priority, although his deputies will not say if he plans to soften his stance in order to compromise with the Senate.
Power plants can still be built without an Article 10 law [currently expired and needing legislative renewal] in place. Without it, though, applications must go through a locally controlled and more open-ended process governed by the State Environmental Quality Review Act.
Here's where it gets interesting. Note that bold text is our embellishment - so you can scan to the good parts.
Gavin Donohue, president of the Independent Power Producers of New York, an Albany trade group that represents power plant owners, said the lack of a siting law is chasing investment away from the state. "What we're doing is sending a message that New York is not a good place to do business," Donohue said. "We're looking for a bill that does not exclude nuclear and doesn't exclude new technologies like clean coal. Why do a law and just preclude someone rom participating?" Nuclear also got a boost from Patrick Moore, the former leader of Greenpeace who is acting as an adviser to New York AREA.
Moore attended the breakfast and sat in the audience. "Renewables can't do it by themselves," Moore said. "We have to look at nuclear energy as an essential part of the mix. It's not a silver bullet, but it's pretty close to it."
We looked over at SourceWatch to figure out who might be behind this "New York AREA" group.
New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance (NY AREA) is a New-York lobby group that has backed a bid for the renewal of the operating license for the Indian Point nuclear power plants.According to one news account, NY AREA is "funded at least partly by Entergy, Indian Point's owner." (Source: Michael Risinit, "Relicensing battle brews at Indian Pt," The Journal News (Westchester County, NY), March 30, 2005)
Entergy spokesperson Jim Steets told PR Watch that his company "was 'instrumental in the founding of New York AREA,' but said he didn't know 'how much of New York AREA's funding comes from Entergy.' He added, 'There's no question that there's a strong association' between Entergy and NY AREA, but as 'membership has grown, we've become just another dues-paying member.' NY AREA is comprised of 'independent-minded people, with interests of their own,' he stressed."
And Patrick Moore, who's he? New York resident perhaps? According to SourceWatch provided info (below), it seems likely that Moore resides in the Vancouver BC, Canada, area where his Greenspirit Strategies Ltd firm is based. So, hired gun breakfasting at Not-La Bergamote.
NY AREA lists Patrick Moore -- a public relations consultant retained by the Nuclear Energy Institute in 2006 -- as an advisor. [3] Moore appears in the November 2006 NY AREA VNR.Patrick Moore was a leading figure with Greenpeace Canada and subsequently with Greenpeace International between 1981 and 1986. In 1991 he established a consultancy business, Greenspirit Enterprises, "focusing on environmental policy and communications in natural resources, biodiversity, energy and climate change."[1]. He has worked for the mining industry, the logging industry, PVC manufacturers and in defence of biotechnology.
Moore describes himself as "chairman and chief scientist" of Greenspirit Strategies Ltd., a PR company that "work with many leading organizations in forestry, biotechnology, aquaculture and plastics, developing solutions in the areas of natural resources, biodiversity, energy and climate change." He is also a Board Member of NextEnergy, a Canadian energy services company.
Wondering what City residents think would be a silver bullet? Hint: it might roar when it falls or howl when it blows across the water. See what non-ex-Greenpeace members had to say a while back.
Via::Albany Times Union, "Power plant rules sought, Governor makes priority of passing new law to combat impending energy shortage" Image credit::Nuclear Energy Institute website, front page Java flash image excerpt of idealized family dancing through flower covered meadow, breathing Nuclear Clean Air.
If this guy is being paid by Indian Point, directly or indirectly, than his words come from Indian Point, directly or indirectly. You can not trust people in the pay of those that are under scrutiny. John, thanks for this info about Patrick Moore and NY AREA.
The short answer.
Nuclear ain't cheap.
greyfalcon.net/h2nuke
greyfalcon.net/costlynuclear
And Nuclear ain't quick.
greyfalcon.net/nuclearvideo
You really should have posted the caveats about Moore far higher, at the the beginning of the post. His bonifides are extremely suspect and he has quite probably engaged in substantial resume enhancement. His contemporaries at Greenpeace certainly recall their time together and efforts quite differently than he does. Is he really an actual scientist?
Bettwe you should cross reference to Union of Concerned Scientists:
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/nuclear_safety/
or the Nuclear Information and Resource Center:
http://www.nirs.org/
or many other sources of information not beholden to the nuclear industry or large power producers for fuller and more accurate information.
Uranium is a non-renewable resource and we are currently receiving more than two-thirds from Russia, while the US only has one remaining active uranium mine and produces only 15% of its yearly needs.
Thousands of people are still sick and dying from the effects of uranium mining in the US, with massive contamination yet to be remediated.
It will take much longer than 4 years to license, plan, contract, source build, commission and begin commercial operation of a new reactor. Having a previously permitted site will certainly reduce the lead time, but only to a small degree.
What the US, and NYC, needs is wide spread, decentralized distributed power production, leaning heavily on wind and solar. NYC is also well located to take advantage of water current and tidal power production as well.
We know what damage NYC and the country suffered from the terrorist attack on the WTC. If those airplanes had targeted Indian Point - less than 25 miles up the Hudson from NYC - the dead and injured could have been hundred of times greater, much less the decontamination problems and the overall damage to the country's economy.
Nuclear facilities offer terrorists the greatest possible bang for the buck. We don't need to be creating still more targets. It's like doing everything for an arsonist but handing them a lit match.
Let's not even mention the need to safeguard nuclear wastes for more than 100,000 years - with technologies, geologies and societies that don't (and probably never can) exist.
In contrast, distributed renewable energy sources offer almost no tempting targets because they are dispersed. They are robust, so that if one installation goes down, the others continue to serve the grid. And they provide far greater returns to local economies and employment.
Damn, greyflcn, you're everywhere! (That's a good thing)
Nuclear isn't clean and it (and so-called "clean coal") needs lots of water.
The solution is renewables. We have the tech now. Lets get on with it.
@jon
The references you listed lack credibility.
Russia has great stockpiles of enriched Uranium left over from the cold war, so it makes sense to utilize those in a useful manner before expanding global mining operations.
Source for injuries and contamination of uranium mining?
"If those airplanes had targeted Indian Point - less than 25 miles up the Hudson from NYC - the dead and injured could have been hundred of times greater, much less the decontamination problems and the overall damage to the country's economy."
Completely fallacious.
Jon, your argument are tired and ignorant, simply repeating the lies and half truths of others.
I heard Mr. Moore give a talk on nuclear energy a couple of years ago at a Canadian university, so I was interested to see him resurface. He was very convincing, as he is a very good speaker, but when his "facts" were challenged, he immediately became defensive and even very rude to some of the well-respected professors in attendance. I do not want to give away the name of the university, but it is home to several nuclear scientists and engineers, so they clearly know what they are talking about, as it is their main area of research and work.
His main argument for nuclear seemed to be that "there is no other option" as he repeatedely stated that renewable sources will never be enough. He cooked up several pretty graphs and charts to back this up as well. The point where he seriously lost credibility, in my mind, (aside from being very rude in response to questions), was when he went off on a tangent talking about how golden wheat was going to save the third world, and that bio-engineered foods are completely safe and there is no evidence to the contrary. That is when I realized that he was just there to rant.
At one point he also took the time to bash Greenpeace and say that they are basically fanatics that he did not want to have any association with anymore - I wonder if it was the other way around?
On the whole, he left a very bad impression, wtih me at least, and actually managed to further deepen my dislike for nuclear energy, so I would have to take anything he says with a grain of salt.
Let me guess, they want to build another piece-of-junk light water reactor? Right?
Third generation? Most of the engineering from the 70s? Oh, but they have "standardized" the design. Sweet..... >_
The stupidity of some of these people is simply mind boggling. New York City has three (relevant) problems:
1. An Energy Shortage
2. Too much strain on their grid
3. A huge waste disposal problem
A guy right up the street in Conneticut has a solution to all three: http://www.startech.net/
Even if that turns out to be wack, how about distributed generation? Take some strain off of your grid and build high efficiency gas turbines near your substations. Sell/give some CFLs to your customers. Talk to major consumers of power (like big buildings in downtown Manhattan) and talk about building a CHP station at the building. We've got plenty of natural gas (it can be sourced from renewable sources to boot).
Distributed generation makes it very hard for terrorists to shut down your entire grid. Sell that to the Department of Homelance Security and try to get some pork out of it.
Nah, let's just put a nuke up the river and call it day. If the sucker melts down it will just take out one of the most important cities in the world.
Morons....
thats stupid... why dont they use Wind, or Solar, or underwater tide turbines??? im pretty sure its better than this..