News Archive 2004

Industry group touts impact of Indian Point
By Alex Philippidis
Westchester County Business Journal
April 26, 2004

A group representing the nation's nuclear industry has jumped into the Indian Point debate, saying the more than half-billion dollars worth of jobs, taxes and sales generated by the Buchanan plants outweighs the safety fears expressed by a broad coalition of environmentalists and local officials.

Indian Point generated $763.3 million in economic activity for Westchester and four nearby counties, according to a study released April 20 by the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) - a Washington D.C., group whose 250 members include Entergy Corp., the parent company of Indian Point operator Entergy Nuclear Northeast.

Most of that activity, $682.7 million, was generated within Westchester itself, according to a Business Journal estimate based on criteria furnished by an author of the study.

Brad Eccles of RTI International, a Research Triangle Park, N.C., firm that carried out the study for NEI, said a Westchester share of the $800 million impact recorded for five Hudson Valley counties could be calculated by adding:

• Direct spending - $650 million spent by Entergy on Indian Point labor, services and materials, plus local taxes and the value of electric power.
• Indirect spending - $17.2 million, or 65 percent of the $26.5 million recorded regionally in spending by suppliers.
• Induced spending - $15.5 million, or 18 percent of the $86.8 million recorded regionally in employee spending on goods and services, same as the percentage of employees who live in Westchester.

"Indian Point provides a twofold success for the local economy: High-paying jobs and affordable electricity," said Angelina S. Howard, executive vice president of the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Howard spoke April 20 during a formal presentation of the report before an audience of business leaders at the Westchester Country Club in Rye. The presentation was hosted by New York Affordable Reliable Energy Alliance (New York AREA), a coalition of 45 business, labor and minority groups - including Entergy - that advocate building more power plants and keeping existing ones open.

However, the report was based on statistics supplied by Entergy for 2002, when the company employed 1,683 at Indian Point. Entergy now employs 1,355 people at the Buchanan plants, in addition to another 160 staffers in its regional offices in downtown White Plains, at 440 Hamilton Ave.

Since 2002, about 150 workers accepted a voluntary buyout offered by Entergy, company spokesman Jim Steets said. Entergy also reduced its work force through attrition as staffers retired or left, after hiring extra security personnel in 2002 to beef up security following 9/11.

Steets said the 2002 figures included in the report take into account a payment in lieu of taxes agreement designed to stabilize through 2014 Entergy's annual payments to several taxing jurisdictions - including the Hendrick Hudson School district, the village of Buchanan, the town of Cortlandt and Westchester County.

But while its PILOT payments rose by $1.4 million between 2002 and last year, to $24 million, Entergy still pays less than the $35 million Steets said the company shelled out in property taxes before the in-lieu-of-tax payments took effect.

The falloff in jobs and tax payments weaken the report's argument that Indian Point is an economic engine for Westchester and the Hudson Valley, says a longtime opponent of the Buchanan nuclear plants.

In a formal statement, Riverkeeper cited Business Journal reports from 2002 about Entergy's intent to reduce its work force soon after it acquired the Indian Point 2 and 3 plants. Steets said the reduction was needed to eliminate duplicative jobs stemming from the fact both plants were previously owned by separate entities - IP2 by Con Edison; IP3 by the New York Power Authority.

"NEI has joined Entergy in a desparate battle for survival. The public is not going to be influenced by that one bit," said Kyle Rabin, policy analyst for Riverkeeper Inc., the Garrison-based environmental group that has spearheaded regional opposition to Indian Point.

Rabin also said the study could not be viewed as valid since NEI's chairman is Donald C. Hintz, the president of Entergy. Steets disagreed, saying Hintz's role with NEI did not render the statistics any less valid: "For those who had doubts about the economic benefits we have talked about, these numbers demonstrate the value of Indian Point."

Arthur (Jerry) Kremer, chairman of New York-AREA, said Westchester should not make what he called the mistake of the state and Long Island municipalities when they succeeded in dismantling the Shoreham nuclear plant just as it was coming on line. The decision cost taxpayers $650 million, negotiated down from an initial $1.2 billion, Kremer said.

"This is an investment that is worth holding on to," Kremer said.

Organizing the event were two Westchester business groups, The Westchester County Association Inc. and The Business Council of Westchester; and the African-American Men of Westchester, which has expressed fears that a shutdown of Indian Point would lead to construction of new traditional power plants in minority neighborhoods.

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