Nukes are not green! We want green energy!

We are at a critical juncture in making decisions about how will generate our electricity in the coming decades. How we do this has nothing to do with either airport security, or any other hazards of modern day life. It has to do with choices we make collectively to support our individual life styles and to provide cheap electricity for businesses.

Some initiatives are already in progress. Governor Spitzer has already passed a 15 point conservation plan that can save the amount of electricity generated by Indian Point. His stated goal is to hold electricity consumption flat while continuing our economic upswing. This means we would need power plants. Of course, the cheapest, least polluting power plant is the one you never have to build. Governor Spitzer has approved construction for two wind farms in upstate New York which will be on line in two years with clean, renewable energy.

In Westchester the County's task force on conservation and global warming is due soon with energy saving recommendations. Some forward looking local governments are already going green and saving taxpayers money on town hall utility bills. A bio diesel production facility is in the planning stage in Cortlandt. California and Vermont are already well along the profitable path to conservation and efficiency using concepts like net metering. We can do the same

Entergy is a multibillion dollar, multi national corporation whose purpose is to make money for its shareholders. So was General Electric in Tarrytown. GE made an economic decision to close and it was hard for the host community for a long time. Lives were changed and people had to find different jobs. However, the town recovered and is now in the middle of a green renaissance. The automobile industry is going through similar changes right now. The way cars are manufactured has got to change. The United Auto Workers will get the best deal it can for its workers and that's the way it should be. Workers at Indian Point, the many trades that work there, as well as the town of Buchanan need transition help. If Detroit can do it, why can't we?

If the huge amount of money Entergy is currently spending on advertising were dedicated to developing a business plan for an alternative use of the site, questions like this would have already been answered. Those who would like to see a what a comprehensive business plan for a world without Indian Point looks like can take a look at the Levitan Report commissioned by Westchester County government.

Those who claim that they "cannot support the closing of Indian Point until alternatives are in place" have very little faith in the free market or in good business planning. Once the decision is made to close Indian Point many other electricity providers will be able to look ahead and see how they can profit by increasing their output and sales. Also, decommissioning a nuclear plant does not mean that the property is off of the tax rolls or out of production for ever. It just makes room for whatever comes next.

Our energy landscape needs to be clean and green and nuclear does not qualify on either point. As was made clear by NRC Branch Chief in the Division of License Renewal, Rani Franovich, at the meeting on June 27, nuclear energy releases green house gases. Those who question this can refer to the generic environmental impact study on the NRC website. And of course there is always the looming issue of high level radioactive waste that is toxic for thousands of years. We use the electricity from Indian Point and leave behind a toxic mess that quite literally has no place to go. This is selfish and immoral. Even ardent proponents of nuclear energy can only speculate on solutions to this problem. It is now evident from the green revolution that is taking place all around us that alternative forms of generating energy create more jobs, produce cheaper, cleaner electricity and moves us toward climate friendly ways of meeting our electricity needs.

Nuclear energy is an aging dinosaur, gussied up in a wardrobe of fake claims which are paid for by companies who are looking at huge profits. Profits that they can realize only because they have lined up enormous tax payer subsidies. We can do better.

Marilyn Elie
Westchester Citizens Awareness Network