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A hostile crowd of approximately 500, many holding signs decrying the safety of the Indian Point nuclear power plants in Buchanan, took over a meeting hosted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Cortlandt Thursday night.
The meeting started with a slide presentation by the federal agency, but quickly digressed into a question and answer session with the public, after officials were repeatedly interrupted and shouted at by the audience during the presentation. Cries of “lies,” and "double talk" and chants of “Close Indian Point" seemed to rattle NRC officials.
Officials attempted to explain the rather cryptic slides to the antsy audience. After Michelle Catts, senior resident of Indian Pt. 2, said the NRC had determined “Indian Point was operated safely” in 2010. the audience exploded with heckling, prompting mediator Karl Farrar, regional counsel for the NRC, to scold the audience, saying, “Do you want us to go on with the meeting?”
After a five-minute break, and an attempted resumption of the meeting, it was decided to hold a question and answer session. Opposition to the power plants far outnumbered supporters.
“This is the fifth one I’ve been to,” said Robert Olsson, a Croton resident speaking about NRC public meetings. “This one has the most people against it. Usually it’s the other way around.”
Various local and state officials were present at the meeting, including State Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, of the 95th District, who received a standing ovation when she told the six seated members of the agency, “Your job is to protect the public, not the industry.”
Jerry Connolly, a former Indian Point worker who retired after 40 years of service, said he was representing 500 workers in the Boilermakers Union Local 5, which includes workers from Indian Point. “We are in the unfortunate position in this state of having some of the oldest equipment,” Connolly said, adding he believed much of the equipment inside Indian Point had been replaced over the years. “What the public is missing,” continued Connolly, “is their insatiable appetite for electricity.”
According to Jim Steets, spokesperson for Entergy Nuclear, the company which operates Indian Point, Cortlandt and surrounding communities are extremely dependent on taxes coming from Indian Point. The yearly taxes amount to about $25 million per year.
Teachers and school district officials from various counties were also present. Citizens had come from as far away as Albany and New York City, as well as many from Rockland, Putnam, Orange and Ulster counties.
Comments (5)
I truly believe that Luddism is not central to these folks' motives in showing up. I think they enjoy being part of something exciting, I think they put too much trust in the activist organizer's motives and information, and just go along in order to "do something" for "the cause".... and have a fun day out.
I think "the cause" is a slippery thing, always changing. ( Anti Iraq war, anti fracking, anti-globalism, etc., etc) I think Indian Point is just another checkoff box on a long list of checkoff boxes ( when remitting your $20 checks to Care2, or Progressive Secretary, or whatever).
I think the "day's outing" they put together is mainly a social event, but a social event that quickly gets taken over by the most dramatic personalities---- that is to say---- the few REALLY insane anarchists, the one who get those little $250 checks from the G.R.A.C.E. foundation every month, checks to keep them organizing, agitating, manipulating those dumb enough to have sent them their real names, addresses, and bank account numbers.
Mind you, I take the existence of those ratty little oppositionist, misanthropic careers as part of the price we must pay for democracy. They undoubtedly have a right to do what they do, to spread fear, and falsehoods, and hurt us all.
That said..... the June 2 spasm was not a good thing.
It suppressed information. It hogged the microphones of democracy for a misinformed cause.
It misled its own members. It wasted public time & money.
And they answer:
But at least we did S O M E T H I N G !
Do you want to react appropriately to the Japan disaster?
Send a $1000 check to Japan Relief.
Attacking each other in America does not help a single Japanese victim.
Andrew Cuomo has every right to manipulate the 6000 or so Hud Valley antinook activists to gain advantage in a Democratic Party primary race,( just like John Hall did).
All is fair in primary politics.
BUT
A single man does not represent the will of 19,000,000 New York State citizens, especially when the position he holds is tied to his own personal job security.
Cuomo's personal feelings about nuclear will not pay the electric bills of 19,000,000 people, nor their tax bills, ( should we lose IP's taxes).
The Westchester Legislature has a long, well-deserved reputation as a non-representative, ineffective charade, and aside from running Westchester Medical Center into the ground, and losing a federal fair-housing decision, have zero accomplishments to show us. It matters not what the Westchester Legislature has declared after being intimidated into it by Mike Kaplowitz. They represent no one.
Manhattanville College polled Westchesterites, and got a 70% for, 20% against Indian Point result. This is more in line with reality, than Cuomo, or 400 neo-commie brownshirts from Greenwich Village.
Do not be so ready to be taken in by street theater.
Have a nice day.
Let us talk about just who these people were.
They were enlisted by email over a period of 6 weeks by the local activist clique of M. Elie, S. Schapiro, & R. Chevalier, and were given busses by Riverkeeper, with which to ferry people up to Cortlandt from as far away as Philadelphia. The busses parked at Vanderbilt & 42nd street (by Grand Central), and left around 4 pm.
Mr. Chevalier provided exact instructions on how to arrive early, grab a seat, hand your seat over to an activist "seat monitor" who would hold it for you ( thus preventing local folks from sitting), while you went out to join Ms. Elie in seeking out any media cameras, to have a singing/chanting/sign-waving "media moment".
Instructions were given on how to sign up as a speaker, and all were advised to do so. People showed up holding signs opposing fracking, promoting same-sex-unions, and other standard leftist causes. This heterogenous mix of issues tells us that even in the activist ranks, its real tough to turn out 400 bodies on a single issue.
Since the NRC meeting was not to decide about anything, and not to solicit complaints, but only to provide a yearly assessment of Indian Point's record for people living near Indian Point, the entire exercise of "stuffing" the meeting with NYC "Ringers" was unethical, done for one purpose only--- to create a media event, reportable by yellow journalism as a mock "Protest against nuclear".
This is PRESS AGENTRY.
The arrival of the 400 ringers prevented the NRC meeting from happening, and DID NOT REPRESENT LOCAL PEOPLE IN ANY WAY.
So.... Riverkeeper is underwriting disruption of open information meetings, in order to get media PR exposure.
How "Pro-People" is that?
Is that actually "Anti-People?
Anti-Information"
Anti-Transparency?
Anti-Democracy?
Was this a Brown-Shirt intimidation, fascistically stuffing it to the common folks of Westchester?
You decide.
Thank you, Jessica Glenza and Daily Greenburgh! I was at that meeting, and your reporting is the most accurate and well-written account I have read in the media so far. Keep up the good work!
Governor Cuomo and the N.Y. State and Westchester County legislatures have already gone on record as opposing relicensing of Indian Point. Greenburgh residents should acquaint themselves with the facts about the dangers the aging plant poses to the region. These include vulnerable storage facilities for spent fuel rods, fire, earthquake, and terrorism vulnerability, and the impossibility of a workable evacuation plan.
Luddites, plain and simple.
Yeah, I get that nuclear power is not high on the hippies' "Nice to Have" List, but then again, they don't shower nearly as much as the rest of us so inexpensive hot water is not their priority. Consequently, their opinions should count for less.