NUKE PLANT OWNER WARNS MINORITY NEIGHBORHOODS

(Westchester County, NY) I just about spilled my coffee with this story. Entergy Nuclear Northeast, owner of the Indian Point Nuclear Station, has been warning low-income, minority communities in Westchester County and NYC that they may build power plants in their neighborhoods if the nuclear facility is forced to close. About a year ago, legislators voted overwhelmingly for shutdown of the plants.

In Westchester, the company is collecting signatures on petitions containing the warnings in the Yonkers, Mount Vernon and Greenburgh neighborhoods represented by the three blacks and one Latino who serve on the county legislature, but it is bypassing the 13 districts represented by white legislators.

The petition drive, orchestrated by Entergy Nuclear Northeast, warns that the low-income neighborhoods where there already is "an over-representation of facilities that produce air pollution ... will be disproportionately affected by the efforts of regional environmental groups seeking to close Indian Point." [Underline by ed.]

A memo attached to the petitions that Entergy sent to the four legislators on Monday is more direct: "In recent years, nearly all proposals for new power plants in New York State have been in or adjacent to areas with high concentration(s) of people of African descent and Latinos," the memo says.

Legislators have expressed shock and considerable displeasure, as have the environmentalists.

Kyle Rabin, the Indian Point analyst for Riverkeeper, an environmental group that has called for the plants to close, criticized the Entergy campaign as "a dirty, underhanded public-relations tactic." [Underline by ed.]

There's a reasonable likelihood that the substance of the Entergy campaign will come about if they are forced to close the Indian Point facility. As such, they're not telling any big, fat lies to the public. I'm not so sure that the environmentalists could pass a similar big, fat lie test. Historically, scare tactics based on disputed science have been their primary method of influencing the public.

My personal take is that the utilities should be more proactive in their ongoing conflict with the greenies. With the media as their dedicated cheerleaders, the environmentalists have had a free ride for much too long a time.