Howie Hawkins for Congress - Hawkins Announces Opposition to New Nuke at Nine Mile Point

Hawkins Announces Opposition to New Nuke at Nine Mile Point

Howie Hawkins for Congress
25th District, New York
www.howiehawkins.org

Media Release

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, August 20, 2008
For More Information: Howie Hawkins, 315-425-1019, hhawkins@igc.org

Calls for Massive Investments in Jobs through Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Howie Hawkins, the Green Populist candidate for Congress in the 25th District, challenged his two opponents today to join him in opposing the construction of a new nuclear power plant at Nine Mile Point. Hawkins' challenge comes on the eve of a public meeting in Oswego being held by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday on an application for a proposed new nuclear plant at Nine Mile Point.

"Nuclear power will make our energy problems worse, not better. Even Wall Street knows it is a lemon, which is why investment banks demand massive subsidies and loan guarantees from the federal government before investing in new nuclear power plants. A much better way to secure energy supplies, reduce global warming, and create living wage jobs is a major investment in energy efficiency. I support the proposal by the Working Families Party and others to retrofit one million homes in our state for energy conservation and efficiency," noted Hawkins.

"For the cost of one new nuclear power plant, we could retrofit 1 million homes in New York State and save more energy than a nuclear plant would generate," Hawkins declared.

The Center for Working Families estimates a $7,000 cost on average to retrofit a home to improve its energy efficiency. One million home retrofits would cost $7 billion, which is in the middle range of recent estimates to build a new nuclear power plant. Two-thirds of electricity generated goes to power buildings, with half of that, or one-third of the total, going to residential buildings. The Center estimates that these retrofits would save residential customers an average of over 30 percent on their electricity bills. The result of a comprehensive green building retrofit program for all residential buildings in New York would be a one-sixth reduction in state electricity consumption, or 206 billion kwh per year. The proposed 1600-megawatt plant at Nine Mile Point would only generate 14 billion kwh per year under the most optimistic but unrealistic assumption that it ran at full capacity year round.

Constellation Energy's website says the new plant at Nine Mile Point would generate several thousand construction jobs and 350 permanent jobs. The Apollo Alliance of labor and environmental groups estimates that more than 21,5000 jobs are created for every $1 billion invested in energy efficiency. Using that figure, a $7 billion investment in retrofitting New York's residential buildings for energy efficiency would generate over 150,000 jobs in construction, the maintenance of building systems, and related manufacturing for efficient appliances and building envelope components.

"The costs and benefits of nukes versus energy efficiency are obvious. We can squander $7 billion or so on a dirty nuclear power plant, or save far more energy and create far more good jobs by investing in clean energy efficiency," Hawkins said.

Hawkins said there are four key reasons why nuclear power still doesn't work after sixty years of failure: nuclear power is too costly; it is vulnerable to terrorist sabotage and nuclear proliferation; there is still no solution for long term storage of waste; and the dangers of radioactive pollution, from the mining and production of uranium fuel to chronic release by operating plants to the ever present possibility of a catastrophic accident.

Hawkins cited a 2003 MIT study, "The Future of Nuclear Energy," which concluded: "The prospects for nuclear energy as an option are limited" by many "unresolved problems," of which "high relative cost" is only one. Others include environment, safety and health issues, nuclear proliferation concerns, and the challenge of long-term waste management.

The Wall Street Journal reported this past May that the estimated of the costs of the so-called new generation of new nuclear power plants with standardized designs have increased to $5 billion to $12 billion each, doubling to quadrupling the $2-3 billion estimates. The cost estimates were released this by five experienced nuclear operators, including NRG Energy Inc., Progress Energy Inc., Exelon Corp., Southern Co. and FPL Group Inc.

"Nuclear power has received billions of dollars yearly for decades in taxpayer subsidies, including insurance against accidents the private insurance industry refuses to cover. But even with this existing corporate welfare, industry officials admit they can't build a single new plant without making the taxpayer responsible for any bad loans," Hawkins said.

According to Public Citizen, from 1947 through 1999 the nuclear industry was given over $115 billion in direct taxpayer subsidies. Including Price Anderson Act limitations on nuclear liability, the federal subsidies reach $145.4 billion. By comparison, federal government subsidies for wind and solar energy totaled $5.7 billion over the same period. The future management of radioactive waste and the decommissioning of old reactors will also require additional billions.

According to a 2007 report released by the American Solar Energy Society, renewable energy industries today amount to nearly $1 trillion in revenue in the United States, generating more than $150 billion in tax revenue at the federal, state and local levels. The report indicates that by 2030 the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries could create 40 million jobs, and generate up to $4.5 trillion in revenue in the United States.

Hawkins pointed out that the NYS Office of the State Comptroller estimates that the production of renewable energy to meet the State's Renewable Portfolio Standard goal could generate up to 43,000 new jobs here. Then Lt. Governor David Paterson stated iin Februrary this year in The First Report Of The Renewable Energy Task Force To Lieutenant Governor David A. Paterson:

"Renewable energy and energy efficiency provide immediate alternatives to transition away from this dependence on fossil fuels, with numerous environmental, economic and societal benefits to our citizens. Renewable energy and improved energy efficiency reduce greenhouse gas emissions and additional pollutants released from traditional fossil-fueled power sources, thereby reducing our carbon foot print and reducing public health impacts related to exposures of particulate matter and smog. They also create market opportunities for new high-tech industries to locate in New York, increasing our workforce and training opportunities as well as economic growth."

Hawkins said that nuclear power remains a very unsafe way to produce electricity. "Since 1986, the year of the Chernobyl accident, there have been 200 near nuclear accidents at 50 reactors in the U.S. A serious accident could result in the permanent radioactive contamination of 40,000 square miles. An outage at a nuclear power plant that lasts more than a year has happened 51 times at41 differentreactors around the United States. These outages show no signs of stopping. These long shutdowns are a sign of widespread safety problems at the reactors," Hawkins said.

One of the biggest problems with nukes is how to safely dispose of the highly radioactive waste. Over 54,000 metric tons of irradiated fuel has accumulated at the sites of commercial nuclear reactors in the United States. There are several proposals to manage this highly radioactive waste, which is necessary for up to 10,000 years, but none of them would satisfactorily deal with the material. The biggest effort, the Yucca Mountain project, continues to be obstructed by bipartisan political opposition in its home state of Nevada, and may very well never open. Numerous unresolved problems remain with the geologic and hydrologic suitability of the proposed site.

"Those who argue that nuclear power is a solution to global warming are like used car salesmen who try to unload junkers on unsuspecting customers," declared Hawkins. "Investment in renewable alternatives and energy efficiency measures will not only deliver greater emissions reductions than nuclear power, it will deliver them more cheaply, and all without the huge safety risks inherent in the nuclear option."

Responding to nuclear advocates who say that we must triple the number of nuclear reactors in the U.S. in order to replace coal fired plants with nuclear plants and make a dent in global warming, Hawkins said, "With a price tag of $5-12 billion per reactor and a historic construction timeline around 10 years, the 200-300 new reactors projected in this scenario would be an utterly irresponsible diversion of funding. Spending those resources on renewable alternatives like wind, solar, and conservation programs would produce more results more quickly and affordably."

In making this claim, Hawkins cited the work of Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, who recently pointed out that nuclear would not in any way replace oil, since less than 2% of oil is used to produce electricity. "What nuclear would do is displace coal, our most abundant domestic fuel. And this sounds good for climate, but actually, expanding nuclear makes climate change worse, for a very simple reason. Nuclear is incredibly expensive. The costs have just stood up on end lately. Wall Street Journal recently reported that they're about two to four times the cost that the industry was talking about just a year ago. And the result of that is that if you buy more nuclear plants, you're going to get about two to ten times less climate solution per dollar, and you'll get it about twenty to forty times slower," stated Lovins.

Hawkins emphasized that our energy choices are a national security as well as energy security issue. "Nuclear power increases the risks the nuclear weapons proliferation. As more reactors are built around the world, nuclear material becomes more vulnerable to theft and diversion. Power reactors have also historically led directly to nuclear weapons programs in many countries," Hawkins said.