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News Archive 2002
Takeover of Indian Point by Westchester
Is Proposed
By WINNIE HU
The New York Times
November 14, 2002
WHITE PLAINS, Nov. 13 - The Westchester County executive,
Andrew J. Spano, said today that he wanted to shut down the
two nuclear power plants at Indian Point by buying them, or
if necessary, taking them through a condemnation process.
Citing concerns about the safety of the plants, Mr. Spano
said he was setting aside $500,000 in his proposed 2003 budget
for a six-month study on acquiring the Indian Point plants
in Buchanan, about 40 miles north of Midtown Manhattan, and
replacing them with a new natural gas plant. He estimated
the purchase and construction costs alone at $2 billion to
$3 billion, at least twice the amount of the county's annual
budget.
"We think that these plants should not have been built
here in the first place, and we'd rather have them somewhere
else, and we're going to pursue this attack," Mr. Spano
said during a news conference at his office.
But Mr. Spano and other county officials offered few details
about their proposal, except to say that the study would address
a wide range of questions, including where the money would
come from and whether the county would act alone or try to
seek partners. Mr. Spano has said he would not raise taxes
to buy the plants.
Indian Point's owner, the Entergy Corporation, said today
that it was not interested in selling the nuclear plants and
that it would oppose any effort to close them.
"Entergy hasn't put out a for-sale sign," said
Jim Steets, an Entergy spokesman. "We'll talk to the
county executive about whatever he wants, but we're not looking
to sell Indian Point. It's too valuable to Entergy and to
the residents of New York State."
The company bought the plants in the last two years, and
Mr. Steets said it had spent hundreds of millions of dollars
to upgrade equipment and increase training. Together, the
two plants generate about 2,000 megawatts of electricity for
homes, businesses and public buildings in Westchester and
New York City; one megawatt is enough to power about 1,000
average homes.
Mr. Spano's announcement follows more than a year of divisive
public debates here over the safety of Indian Point since
the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The Westchester Board of Legislators
and dozens of villages and towns across the county have passed
resolutions calling for the nuclear plants to be decommissioned.
Brian Nickerson, director of the Michaelian Institute for
Public Policy at Pace University, said that while Mr. Spano
was clearly responding to the concerns of his constituents,
his proposal for a takeover of Indian Point faced many logistical
and regulatory hurdles. "I don't know if it's completely
unrealistic," he said. "But I think it's a difficult
sell."
Several Westchester legislators and others questioned whether
the financially strained county could afford to buy the plants,
let alone build a new one. Just last month, Mr. Spano, a Democrat,
proposed a 31.7 percent increase in the county's share of
the property tax levy to help offset a projected gap of more
than $100 million next year in the county's roughly $1 billion
budget.
"I'm not willing to sign off on Westchester County becoming
Westchester Lighting Company," said Legislator George
Oros, the Republican minority leader. "I think there
are basic, fundamental questions that you have to address
first before you commit the $500,000 for the study."
But Legislator Michael B. Kaplowitz, a Democrat, said that
whether or not the county took over the nuclear plants, the
proposed study would take a serious look at issues that need
to be addressed.
"The economic arguments to keep it open are very powerful,"
he said. "And yet the reasons to close it for public
safety are more compelling. This is a way to do both. You
would close the nuclear side and build a natural gas plant."
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