nuclear-news

New York lawmakers struggle with Gov. Cuomo’s costly nuclear bailout

Lawmakers tread murky details of nuclear bailout debate, Anna Gronewold, Associated Press
March 7, 2017 ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York lawmakers are searching for guidance as they wade through hazy details of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s multibillion-dollar decision to rescue three waning upstate nuclear power plants.

Senators and assembly members at a public hearing Monday denounced the absence of representatives from the Public Service Commission — which approved the landmark bailout in August — to walk them through how and why ratepayer money should be used to preserve the failing plants……

Opponents accused the governor-appointed commission of shrouding the entire decision process in secrecy and questioned whether it considered middle-ground proposals to meet Cuomo’s clean energy goals.

Nuclear watchdog group Alliance for a Green Economy says the program will cost ratepayers an estimated $7.6 billion.

Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, said the organization is most concerned with the speed with which the project slid through the approval process in August.

“The most outrageous part of this from our point of view is that the public was shut out, but they’re going to pay for the tab,” Horner said. “And they’re not even going to know.”

Experts estimate electricity consumers will pay on average about $2 more per month to raise the money. Horner said already-struggling public agencies with enormous electricity costs, such as hospitals and schools and public transportation, could see increases up to $112 million in the first two years of the program……http://finance.yahoo.com/news/lawmakers-tread-murky-details-nuclear-003304425.html

March 8, 2017 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA