Skip to main content

Rudy Giuliani on Nuclear Energy

It’s a great pleasure and surprise when someone who has not said much about nuclear energy one way or another comes out strongly in favor. So here’s New York City’s former Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the Daily News:

We were recently reminded why maintaining a diverse fuel supply is so critical. The extreme cold weather that hit the city this winter caused New York City’s electricity prices to surge to record highs; customers saw their bills spike more than 20%. Many attributed the boost to rising prices for natural gas, which powers most of our electricity generators.

To protect against even more volatile price increases, we need to protect and preserve safe and stable-priced sources of power — such as the nuclear plants at Indian Point.

Electric reliability and the possibility of power outages were constant concerns of mine during my years as mayor, during the brutal winters as well as grueling, hot summer months. Our electric infrastructure is a vital part of New York — it powers our mass transit, our world-class health care, our communications, our financial markets and all the other the private-sector businesses and public organizations that drive our economy.

Given the unexpected challenges our region has faced over the past few years — from Hurricane Irene and superstorm Sandy — the mission to preserve and improve our power systems has never been more critical. We should use available federal funds to strengthen our existing electric system, and thereby offset the needed investment costs.

Most importantly, this will enable us to keep power costs under control — which is important for our region’s economic attractiveness.

A lot more at the link. He has his facts in order and, with a focus on the New York area, he has knows his beans about energy options. Very impressive op-ed from a very impressive figure.

Comments

jimwg said…
Actually Rudy's been advocating Indian Point (and Shoreham) for quite a long while, even long before 911. One of the few pols out there with the spine to come out to hawk nuclear, though regrettably is pretty much a lone wolf about it here as he's advocating in a "progressive" bastion and against a formidable the Cuomo dynasty which is hell bent on shuttering IP with very unscrupulously rabid green groups here. We really have to get a handle on challenging FUD groups and spokespeople!

James Greenidge
Queens NY

Popular posts from this blog

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu

Why Ex-Im Bank Board Nominations Will Turn the Page on a Dysfunctional Chapter in Washington

In our present era of political discord, could Washington agree to support an agency that creates thousands of American jobs by enabling U.S. companies of all sizes to compete in foreign markets? What if that agency generated nearly billions of dollars more in revenue than the cost of its operations and returned that money – $7 billion over the past two decades – to U.S. taxpayers? In fact, that agency, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), was reauthorized by a large majority of Congress in 2015. To be sure, the matter was not without controversy. A bipartisan House coalition resorted to a rarely-used parliamentary maneuver in order to force a vote. But when Congress voted, Ex-Im Bank won a supermajority in the House and a large majority in the Senate. For almost two years, however, Ex-Im Bank has been unable to function fully because a single Senate committee chairman prevented the confirmation of nominees to its Board of Directors. Without a quorum

NEI Praises Connecticut Action in Support of Nuclear Energy

Earlier this week, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed SB-1501 into law, legislation that puts nuclear energy on an equal footing with other non-emitting sources of energy in the state’s electricity marketplace. “Gov. Malloy and the state legislature deserve praise for their decision to support Dominion’s Millstone Power Station and the 1,500 Connecticut residents who work there," said NEI President and CEO Maria Korsnick. "By opening the door to Millstone having equal access to auctions open to other non-emitting sources of electricity, the state will help preserve $1.5 billion in economic activity, grid resiliency and reliability, and clean air that all residents of the state can enjoy," Korsnick said. Millstone Power Station Korsnick continued, "Connecticut is the third state to re-balance its electricity marketplace, joining New York and Illinois, which took their own legislative paths to preserving nuclear power plants in 2016. Now attention should