The Economic Impacts of Closing and Replacing the Indian Point Energy Center via Manhattan Institute

 

Located some 40 miles north of New York City, in Westchester County, the Indian Point Energy Center (IPEC) consists of two operating nuclear reactors, with a combined generating capacity of over 2,000 MW, and one long-retired reactor. IPEC’s size and location are the key factors in both the power it provides and the decades-long fight to shutter the plant permanently.

Although antinuclear sentiment is not new, opposition to IPEC’s continued operation was galvanized by the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. More recently, the March 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that destroyed Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant complex has reinvigorated the debate over IPEC’s safety and its environmental impacts.

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We conclude that closing IPEC would increase average annual electric expenditures in New York State by $1.5 billion–$2.2 billion over the 15-year period 2016–30. For a typical residential customer, this would mean an increase in the household electric bill of $76–$112 each year. The average increase for a commercial customer would be $772–$1,132 per year. The average increase in industrial customers’ electric bills would be $16,716–$24,517. The largest increase would be for transportation customers, such as the subway system, which would see increases of $1.26–$1.85 million per year.

The effects of these higher electricity costs absorbed by customers would ripple through the New York economy, leading to estimated reductions in output of $1.8 billion–$2.7 billion per year over the 15-year period 2016–30. The resulting loss of jobs in the state could range from 26,000 to 40,000 per year, depending on the alternative chosen to replace IPEC.

Read more at The Economic Impacts of Closing and  Replacing the Indian Point Energy Center