Green Energy Advocacy Behind Rising Electricity Prices in Southeast New York, Expert Says

The Indian Point nuclear power plant is seen Aug. 3, 2002, in Buchanan, New York. Photo by Stephen Chernin/Getty Images

When the movement to close the Southeast New York-based Indian Point nuclear plants reached a new high in 2012, energy expert Jonathan Lesser warned that the closure would mean rising electricity prices for consumers.

Much of what he predicted in his 2012 report has come true.

Lesser, an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has over 30 years of experience working for regulated utilities and government. He works as an energy industry consultant and specializes in expert testimony for utility commissions, regulators, and commercial litigation cases.

Following the closure of nuclear plants under the pressure of environmental advocacy, electricity prices climbed steadily, according to a report by New York Independent System Operator, Inc.

Meanwhile, as Indian Point got off the grid, the state’s southeast region grew more reliant on natural gas to generate electricity, increasingly subjecting electricity prices to the volatility of the gas market.

Wawayanda, New York-based CPV Valley Energy Center on Oct. 24, 2022. The natural gas-fired plant was built in 2018 to stabilize the downstate energy supply following announcement of the closure of the Indian Point nuclear plants. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

When global forces such as the war in Ukraine and local pipeline constraints caused gas prices to skyrocket in the past year, the electricity bills in the region shot up as well.

Rockland and Orange, a major utility serving the state’s southeast region, predicts that this year’s gas and electricity rates would climb even higher than the past year, by 44 and 28 percent, respectively.

Currently, New York is under a mandate to get 70 percent of electricity from green energy by 2030.

“I expect electricity prices in New York continue to soar if the state keeps pursuing these policies. Who is really benefiting from these policies? Is it ordinary New York residents? No, they are just going to pay much higher prices for less reliable electricity and may even face blackouts,” Lesser told The Epoch Times on Oct. 20.

“So that can’t be a benefit to them,“ he said. ”Then, who benefits?”

Closure of Nuclear Plants

Located in Buchanan, Westchester County, some 40 miles north of Manhattan, the Indian Point Energy Center once operated two plants that could generate enough electricity for 3 million homes.

The nuclear plants periodically came under attack following notable accidents in other parts of the world—such as the disaster in Fukushima, Japan—and were permanently shut down under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Demonstrators protest against keeping open the Indian Point nuclear power plant on April 22, 2002, in New York City. The plant has been the focus of renewed debate since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The last Indian Point plant closed in April 2021.

Lesser argues that—instead of resorting to a complete shutdown—the safety and environmental concerns surrounding nuclear plants could be adequately addressed through robust licensing processes.

One of the reasons that environmental advocacy groups target nuclear plants is to pave the road for wind and solar energy, Lesser said.

“If you develop emission-free nuclear power plants, you won’t need to develop wind and solar at all, and you have more reliable electricity because—unlike sun and wind—nuclear power plants run all the time,” he said.

He added that the closure’s largest and longest-lasting economic impact is higher electricity prices for consumers, especially those living in Southeast New York, a region that encompasses New York City, Long Island, and nearby counties such as Westchester, Orange, and Rockland.

No matter how the downstate region makes up for the huge loss of the nuclear-generated electricity—building more transmission lines to import upstate electricity, installing gas pipelines for new gas-fired generation plants, or ramping up wind and solar energies—the cost would only go up, Lesser said.

Riverkeeper, a leading environmental group in the state, listed on its website the reasons why it led the fight for the closure, including protecting wildlife, water, and soil from toxic leaking, the potential damage from an accident or natural disaster, and the risk of a potential terrorist attack.

The Epoch Times reached out to Riverkeeper for comments.

Demonstrators rally in support of the Indian Point nuclear power plant on April 22, 2002, in New York City. The plant has been the focus of renewed debate since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 , 2001. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Lesser said the ironic part is that after the closure of Indian Point, the southeast region relied more heavily on natural gas and oil to generate electricity, defeating the very purposes of green advocacy.

In 2021, 89 percent of downstate electricity was generated with fossil fuels, about a 12 percent jump from the year before, according to a report by New York Independent System Operator.

“The green activists exploited the hysteria to destroy nuclear plants that are safe, reliable, high-quality, and emission-free. I think the whole closure was political,” he said.

Supply Constraints

New gas pipelines could boost supply to the Southeast New York region and reduce gas and electricity prices, but the idea has met with strong opposition from green activists, Lesser said.

New York operates a competitive wholesale electricity market where prices are determined hourly by demand and supply; utilities buy electricity from the market, and resell it to consumers without marking up the cost.

The cost of the last unit of electricity generated to meet the demand drives the entire wholesale prices; that unit is almost always produced by natural gas in the southeast region—another reason why gas drives electricity prices in the area, he said.

A sign indicating the location of the Millennium Pipeline buried under a cut in the forest in Hancock, New York, in a file photo. STAN HONDA/AFP via Getty Images

In a recent video that explains energy trends, a spokesperson for Central Hudson acknowledged that gas pipeline constraints, coupled with the closure of Indian Point, contributed to the rising electricity costs in the region.

Central Hudson is a major utility that serves around 300,000 electric customers and 84,000 natural gas customers in the mid-Hudson Valley region.

Another supply constraint lies in electricity transmission lines, Lesser said.

Due to an ample supply derived from hydro and nuclear power, electricity prices in Upstate New York are generally lower than downstate.

If new transmission lines were built to carry cheaper upstate electricity to the southeast region, prices would go down—but that has met with pushbacks from green activists too, Lesser said.

Earlier this year, a $3 billion transmission project that would import Canadian hydropower to power more than one million homes in New York came under attack from environmental groups, who argue that the source of the electricity—the hydro dams—emits a significant amount of carbon.

Water from the Niagara River passes through a hydroelectric dam at the Robert Moses Generating Facility on June 4, 2013, at Lewiston, New York. Photo by John Moore/Getty Images

The project plans to build underground and underwater transmission lines linking Quebec to Queens and still awaits permitting.

Plus, Western New York is part of the Marcellus Shale formation, one of the world’s largest natural gas reserves, but the state banned fracking about eight years ago under Cuomo, Lesser said.

“If New York would allow fracking, not only would that improve the economics in Western New York, it would also lower natural gas and electricity prices in the entire state. Unfortunately, the green environmentalists had been saying for years, ‘No, no, no,’” he said.

A Green Grid

Based on a sweeping environmental law, New York must achieve a 70 percent green grid by 2030 and a complete green grid by 2040.

That goal, just like the closure of Indian Point, would force existing generation plants off the grid and rely on more costly alternatives to power New York homes, he said.

In the past year, about half of electricity in New York was generated by green energy, and another 47 percent by fossil fuels such as natural gas and oil, according to a report by New York Independent System Operator.

The upstate region leads in green energy, with 91 percent of electricity generated from non-fossil fuels, including 44 percent from nuclear and 41 percent from hydro.

“The problem you are going to get is that when the winds are not blowing, and the sun is not shining, you are going to need all this backup generation, and you will have to have all the infrastructure built to meet this green fantasy. The cost of electricity would just skyrocket,” Lesser said.

“The only reason this is being done, in my opinion, is to pay off various green constituencies with huge amounts of the taxpayer and electric ratepayer money—it is basically transferring money to them.”