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News Archive 2003 It's Deafening,
That Silence
By MAREK FUCHS
The New York Times
November 16, 2003
WHAT'S that sound of relative silence floating about the
county ever since the federal government approved Indian Point's
evacuation plan in the summer?
Like it or not, the debate over Indian Point is over, for
all intents and purposes. Barring an unforeseen event, the
nuclear power plant will be as much a part of our landscape
as Bear Mountain and the Sound. As a result, all those politicians,
like Gov. George E. Pataki and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton,
who tiptoed their way through the debate in the hope it would
eventually go away, appear wise -- at least politically.
It wasn't supposed to happen this way. The evacuation plan
was the plant's Achilles' heel and it seemed possible, if
maybe short of probable, that its sheer goofiness would cause
the plant to be shuttered. The thought that only people near
the plant would want to flee, or the notion that parents would
willingly leave their children in holding pens with radioactive
plumes blowing about, struck many as theater of the absurd.
No matter. In July, the federal government ratified the evacuation
plan. With that major issue off the table, nothing sizable
has taken its place.
Even opponents of the plant like Alex Matthiessen, executive
director of Riverkeeper, and Richard L. Brodsky, a state assemblyman
who has long been in the lead in the fight from the political
side, acknowledge comparative silence, though they term it
a temporary lull in the good fight.
And make no mistake: even if the plant is no longer part
of dinner table conversation, the core opposition is still
hanging in there, sending out flurries of press releases about
issues like how the plant's cooling system kills fish and
other aquatic life. But the discussion now hardly causes a
ripple, even when Entergy, the plant's owner, does something
really dumb, as it did recently when it was found to be circulating
frightening petitions in minority areas, scaring people into
thinking that closing Indian Point would bring power plants
to their backyards.
The summer blackout brought good tidings to Indian Point.
Beyond that, it seems clear that the public's ability to stay
focused on any particular issue like Indian Point wanes, especially
as more time goes by without (thank God) another act of domestic
terrorism.
The terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001, was the biggest impetus
for action on Indian Point, as one of the planes flew near
Indian Point. That fear was ratcheted further as plans for
nuclear power plants in the United States were plucked out
of Al Qaeda caves.
But that was Afghanistan and two years ago already. Today,
politicians are calling for federal hearings into the evacuation
plan's approval. If you hear of one actually being scheduled,
though, do let me know.
The bottom line, politically, is that Mr. Pataki and Mrs.
Clinton, the two most powerful politicians in the state, have
wrung their hands over various aspects of the plant's operation.
But neither has called for decommissioning. If they haven't
done it yet, what makes anyone think they'll do it tomorrow?
''In any campaign,'' said Mr. Matthiessen, ''there are going
to be moments of enormous momentum and there are going to
be down periods.'' But what issue can rejuvenate the debate?
Concerns over aquatic life? Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy,
scoffed: groups like Riverkeeper have long trumpeted the recovery
of the Hudson, and are now going to have to sell the public
on its destruction if the aquatic-life argument is to hold,
he said.
The state just issued a draft permit, subject to review and
appeal, calling on Indian Point to move toward building new
water cooling towers, but with a decade to begin construction.
Mr. Brodsky recently announced that he had filed an appeal
to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which approved
the evacuation plan.
Representative Eliot L. Engel recently got legislation passed
that requires the Coast Guard to assess Indian Point's vulnerability
to an attack from the Hudson. Representative
Nita M. Lowey announced that she had secured $1 million to
study replacement energy.
All these things will take time, and time is a friend of Indian
Point.
''We believe that on any serious or potentially consequential
level, the debate is now over,'' Mr. Steets said. ''The blackout
crushed the opposition.'' After Sept. 11, 2001, he added,
the opposition had the best opportunity ever to close the
plant. ''They played on the emotion people react to most:
fear,'' he said. ''And they did it all without the success
they had envisioned or anticipated.''
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