by Chris White
One of the nation’s top energy lobbyists is arguing New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s policies targeting nuclear energy and natural gas are hurting the poorest and most vulnerable people in the state.
Cuomo’s decision to deny the renewal of an air quality permit required for the operation of the natural gas-powered Competitive Power Ventures Power Plant unfairly targets New York’s poorest communities, American Petroleum Institute (API) noted in a press statement Monday. The Democratic governor seeks to replace fossil fuels with green energy.
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“Governor Cuomo has sided with environmental extremists over New York’s most vulnerable: low-income families and seniors,” API New York Executive Director Karen Moreau said in a press statement Monday.
She was referring to the governor’s decision to shutter Indian Point, a nuclear power plant Cuomo promised to close in 2017.
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“Gov. Cuomo’s actions to close Indian Point coupled with efforts to stifle new clean natural gas power generation are creating a manufactured, needless energy crisis throughout New York and the northeast that will harm residents in the region — disproportionately hurting low-income and elderly residents who rely upon affordable electricity to heat, cool, and power their homes,” the group added.
Natural gas prices in the New York City region skyrocketed in January, causing New Yorkers to pay roughly 46 times more in energy prices than the 2017 average for the area, a May report from Consumer Energy Alliance noted.
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Residents in New York pay 44 percent more for energy than the national average, despite having natural gas-rich Pennsylvania as their neighbor.
Due largely to a lack of oil and gas infrastructure, much of New England was forced to rely on imported natural gas from Russia to keep neighborhoods heated during over the winter.
Parts of New England sit on one of the largest deposits of shale oil in the U.S., the Marcellus shale formation that covers parts of New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
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