Matt L. Wald noticed something odd about what Bernie Sanders claims is part of his energy policy. Senator Bernie Sanders, who does not like nuclear power anywhere, now also does not like it at Indian Point Energy Center. This should not surprise anybody, but Senator Sanders is also against climate change (?), and against fossil fuels. The positions are impossible to reconcile. And Wald was not the only one who have noticed.
A persistent idea is that energy from wind and sun will replace fossil and everything else. And for years, New York has had an aggressive plan to use more renewable energy. But it is just a plan. According to a national survey by the DOE Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, released earlier this month, New York aimed to have about 9.5 million megawatt-hours of renewable electricity by the end of 2014. But actual production was only around half that. (That is the main tier, produced at utility scale. There is a customer-sited tier, basically rooftop solar, and that was at 96% compliance, but the target for that was far smaller, less than 1 million megawatt-hours.)
Recent history makes clear this will be very tough. For the near term, at least, the question is whether New York wants to miss its goals by a little or a lot. A state that closes a reactor now is like a ship captain who, at the first sign of rough weather, decides to jettison the lifeboats.
And if the threat of climate change seems distant or abstract (which is not the case in New York, at least not since Sandy) losing Indian Point would have a more immediate impact on electricity bills. Electricity sales in New York are competitive, and when you remove a competitor, prices will rise. That is bad for households, businesses, and government agencies.
What is this (?) above that Sen. Sanders is anti-climate change? See April 8, 2016 I2M WP article.
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