|
News Archive 2003 Indian Point should
stay open
By Stanley Crouch
New York Daily News
November 17, 2003
The environment and the issues that surround it are never
less than extremely important. In the case of environmental
safety and health, we know that coal- and fossil-burning power
plants in black and Latin communities have been held responsible
for the high numbers of children who suffer from respiratory
diseases.
Given those facts, it seems odd that there is now a conflict
between advocates for black communities and environmentalists
over the presence of nuclear plants and the uses of nuclear
energy right here in New York.
One side tells us that the nuclear power plant in Indian
Point should be closed for environmental reasons and because
it provides a catastrophically dangerous target for terrorists.
After all, they continue, imagine what would have happened
if those Sept. 11 planes had flown into the plant at Indian
Point. This entire area would be uninhabitable for thousands
of years, they say.Wrong. In fact, if the terrorists had wanted
to truly bring down the wrath of God on this sinful nation,
flying into Indian Point would not have worked. Without a
doubt, a slaughter far, far larger than that of Sept. 11 would
not have happened. Sorry: There would be no mushroom cloud
to symbolize how deeply into the darkness of our modern age
some backward Islamic fundamentalists had crawled.
What would have happened is that the world at large would
have discovered, to the stoic good, how far from the cliches
of vulnerability the best nuclear power plants actually are.
According to Norris McDonald, president of the African American
Environmentalist Association, closing down Indian Point would
mean the energy bills for working class and black families
would go through the roof and there would be an adverse impact
on small businesses, especially because the plant provides
"10% of the state's electricity at low cost and with
no emissions."
There would also be 1,500 job losses.
McDonald goes on to observe that new plants built to take
the place of Indian Point would not be located in the suburbs.
They would rise in the black and Latin communities - such
as Harlem, South Brooklyn and the South Bronx - that already
"are shouldering an unfair share of pollution."
This is the kind of example that inspires the need for environmental
justice.
Our problem, however, is quite familiar. Some arrogant do-gooders
and some lazy elected officials have not stopped to look at
what might actually better their communities because they
do not have the courage or the sense to go against the cliches
that come out of the wall the second that we hear the word
nuclear.
This time, it seems that the atom is actually our friend.
BACK TO TOP
|
