CLEAN ENERGY PLEDGE

Background Information

A key argument for restructuring New York’s electric power industry is to provide consumers with a choice of power sources. However, New Yorkers lack the choices offered in states like California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania where residents can pick their power supplier just like they choose their long distance phone company.

The conditions established under New York’s initial restructuring agreements favor existing companies and large power generating facilities. State government officials need to do more to remove market barriers and make New York more appealing to clean energy providers.

Almost all of the state’s power comes from some 30 fossil fuel and 6 commercial nuclear power plants. Most of the fossil fuel plants have changed ownership and 5 of the nuclear reactors are in the process of being sold. In fact, more companies are trying to buy nuclear reactors than are seeking to market renewable energy and build renewable electric generating facilities.

Where electricity comes from does make a difference:

· Fossil fuel-fired power plants emit pollutants that cause acid rain, which is killing our lakes; ozone-smog, which contributes to regional haze and asthma attacks; mercury poisoning, which disrupts neurological and motor development; and global climate change, which will affect us in ways we are only beginning to understand.

· Nuclear power reactors release radiation that has been linked to illness, birth defects and infant mortality; produce dangerous radioactive waste with no safe method of disposal (and remains hazardous longer than the time-span of recorded human history); and have the potential for a catastrophic accident, especially as New York’s nuclear reactors age and become more susceptible to system failures.

· Solar, wind and fuel cell technologies produce little or no pollution and no dangerous byproducts when generating electricity.

Each industry is trying to highlight its own benefits, but solar, wind and fuel cell technologies are the answer for ample power and a better local and global environment. The coal industry sticks to economic arguments, such as the cost per kWh, while ignoring the costs of its environmental impacts. The nuclear industry also fails to acknowledge the numerous environmental and safety concerns associated with nuclear power generation when it claims to be the solution to global warming and other environmental problems. Solar, wind and fuel cell technologies are sustainable methods of generating electricity because they are not limited to using stock resources, like coal or uranium, do not emit greenhouse gases, and do not jeopardize environmental and public health while generating electricity.

Spending money on nuclear power, or other flawed technologies, draws funding away from the more cost effective and environmentally beneficial ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, such as energy efficiency, fuel cells and renewable technologies.

To truly open the electric power market requires removing the economic barriers clean energy technologies currently face. Eliminating such hurdles will help attract clean sources of electricity by increasing their competitive viability in the new energy market.