Indian Point debacle: A new Trump presidency threatens NY’s electricity grid

Regarding “Indian Point teardown extended to 2041: Owners say law to blame,” lohud.com, Nov. 17:

After reading your front-page report, which showed that substantially increasing costs of Indian Point's closure are to be paid for out of some $2 billion in rate-payer financed trust funds, one can only worry, and wonder, how things could be worse. They are.

Unfortunately, the Indian Point debacle painfully reminds us of the continuation of New York State’s irresponsible energy policies and how the chickens are now coming home to roost.

Beyond — but directly related to — the Indian Point debacle, New Yorkers have every reason to be very worried about grave risks to New York’s energy reliability — that is our ability to power our own homes and businesses with heat and light.

We closed Indian Point without an equivalent new energy source

In New York State legislators’ and energy policymakers’ zeal to shut down nuclear power plants like Indian Point, a backbone of New York’s energy grid, they dismally failed to provide timely replacement of equivalent and reliable energy supplies essential to protect the public interest.

Our legislators and policymakers painted themselves into a corner. New York State is now forced to urgently build a new power transmission line to Quebec, the Champlain-Hudson Power Express (Hydro-Quebec line), an idea first hatched well over a decade ago, in a dramatically different era. That line remains unbuilt to this day, is hundreds of miles long, and must be buried in both the Hudson River and Lake Champlain, as well as dug underground. This is necessary to connect New York City to hydroelectric dams in remote Quebec.  This replacement source of energy will take years to build — if it is ever built.

This exposes and reveals the grave threats of another Trump presidency on New York’s energy grid and its reliability. When President Joe Biden was elected, one of his very first acts was to cancel the Keystone Pipeline, near and dear to former President Donald Trump’s heart. One grave risk to New York State of a Trump presidency is a retaliatory cancellation of the Hydro Quebec line. This seems not only predictable, but probable for several reasons.

The Hydro Quebec line will make New York State and New YorkCity fully dependent upon a foreign government for its energy security — thereby undermining Trump’s oft-stated goal and re-election promise of returning to the national energy independence achieved in his first term.

Secondly, the Hydro-Quebec line, if it is ever built, would pose a highly credible national security threat due to its hundreds of miles of exposure to terrorism, including underwater in both the Hudson River and Lake Champlain. Remember the Nord Stream pipeline? This Hydro-Quebec line would be New York City’s lifeblood. Also, New York City is arguably the financial capital of the world.

The Hydro-Quebec line, even under the best conditions, would take years to build — after the upcoming presidential election in 2024.

What will Trump do? What could he do?

If elected, what will Trump’s very first acts be? Whether a Trump cancellation of the Hydro Quebec line is “justified” in the interests of a) national energy independence, or b) due to national security, or c) whether out of retaliation for Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline — it will make no difference to New York State residents and the public interest — cancellation will be the damage done to New York’s grid and its reliability.

Any one of the three reasons — if not all three together — should provide New Yorkers’ grave concerns over the very specific risks to our state's energy reliability and their future ability to power and heat their own homes and businesses.

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This results from the clash of New York State’s shortsighted, extreme and overzealous energy policies with wholly predictable federal level National Energy Policies that will be inflicted upon New York in the increasingly possible, or probable, re-election of Trump.

When I was employed by New York State in the regulation of the state's public utilities, in the Energy Division, our sole mission was to ensure that all public utilities provided “Safe and adequate service, at just and reasonable rates”.

It appears, most unfortunately, that New York’s energy policymakers have not remotely lived up to that standard— with New York’s citizens on tap to bear both the reliability and cost consequences of New York’s deeply flawed energy policies.

Christopher Corbett is an engineer and utility state regulator employed by the Energy Division, New York State Department of Public Service from 1974 to 2006.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Indian Point closure: Trump presidency threatens NY’s grid reliability