The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
A look at New York’s clean energy future
ALBANY, N.Y. >> New York state committed last year to generating half of its energy from renewable sources like wind and solar by the year 2030.
Now comes the hard part: figuring out how to do it.
Several big decisions in the next few weeks could fill in some of the details about how the state willmeet Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s renewable energy standard and decide where New Yorkers will get their energy in the years to come.
On Long Island, regulators will soon vote on a plan to authorize the largest off shore wind farmin the United States. In Albany, the state’s Public Service Commission is considering a series of big subsidies for upstate nuclear power plants to allow them to continue operating. Cuomo, a Democrat, directed state energy officials to create a plan to produce 50 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2030. While he’s pushing for big investments in wind and solar energy, he argues that nuclear power should serve as a “bridge” as the state ramps up its use of solar and wind energy. “Nuclear has a role. Some people are against nuclear power as a matter of principal. I disagree with them,” he told reporters last week. “Un- less we’re willing to go back to candles, which would be uncomfortable and inconvenient, we need energy generation. The question is one of balance.” But environmental advocates say the subsidies for aging, potentially hazardous nuclearplants are too expensive, and unnecessary. The subsidies could cost nearly $ 8 billion over the next 13 years. Jessica Azulay, of the Alliance for a Green Economy, said that money should be invested in renewable sources, or in efforts to help communities with nuclear plants find new economic engines. “This rush to save the dying nuclear industry is not the most effective strategy,” Azulay said. “The nuclear industry feels threatened by renewable energy and is going on the attack.”
Meanwhile, the Long Island Power Authority is poised to approve a plan for a 90-megawatt, 15-turbine wind farm in east of Montauk. Offshore wind is seen by many environmentalists as especially promising, given the turbines proximity tomajor population centers.
“This is what our clean energy future looks like,” said Kit Kennedy, director of the energy and transportation programat the National Resources Defense Council.
Complicating the fight over nuclear power and the offshore wind proposal are older debates about jobs, energy costs and fossil fuels like natural gas and coal. The Independent Power Producers of New York, a trade group that represents energy producers, cautions against energy standards that “pick winners and losers” and create financial burdens on ratepayers.
“Amarket based approach is essential,” said IPPNY President Gavin Donohue.
The nuclear debate has other, more political angles too. Cuomo’s powerful allies in organized labor are also supporting the plants, eager to protect thousands of upstate jobs.
“This is an important issue for the entire labor movement,” said state AFL-CIO president Mario Cilento.
Exelon Corp. operates the Ginna and Nine Mile Point nuclear plants upstate and is in talks to buy FitzPatrick nuclear plant from Entergy Corp. The company says the state’s subsidies will “enhance New York’s environmental stewardship while maintaining the economic benefits of upstate nuclear facilities.”