A Sneak Attack on NYC’s Electric Bill

Jack Spencer / April 08, 2010

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation is guaranteeing that New Yorkers will soon have to pay even more for electricity — when they can get it.

The department just rejected Indian Point’s request for a water-quality certificate, which the plant needs to keep operating one reactor running after 2013, and the other after 2015. (The plant also needs its license renewed by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but that’s a different battle.)

A court fight is expected, but if this holds up, New York City in particular is in trouble: Indian Point provides about a third of Gotham’s power (and nuclear plants overall generate 31 percent of electricity statewide).

Even assuming that power can be replaced, it won’t come cheap: Nuclear power is the least expensive form of electricity produced in the United States. And New Yorkers already pay more than a third above the US average for electricity (17.8 cents per killowatt-hour, six cents above average). (more…)