Testimony of James Hegarty
Draft New York State Energy Plan
Toward a Sustainable Energy Future for New York
Hunter College, August 21, 2009
Good afternoon. My name is James Hegarty and I am a Field Representative for the Mason Tenders’ District Council Political Action Committee. The Mason Tenders’ District Council is comprised of more than 15,000 members in six local unions of the Eastern Region of the Laborers’ International Union of North America. The Laborers International Union represents some 40,000 men and women in New York State working as construction laborers, mason tenders, plasterer’s helpers, office and professional personnel, demolition workers, recycling plant employees, sand hogs, pavers, high school teachers and asbestos and hazardous material abatement laborers.
New York State’s Energy Plan has a fatal flaw as its very premise. The problem with such an error at such a basic level is that the entire plan then becomes faulty. As we know in the construction industry, if you build a structure with a flawed foundation, all that gets built on top of it will be flawed as well. That fatal flaw is the misguided premise that nuclear energy is inherently dangerous.
In a day and age where every conceivable entity, from the White House, to the State House to numerous City Halls throughout the State are searching for ways to achieve energy independence, to dismiss a technology that over decades of use and refinement has proven itself to be a safe alternative to foreign oil is foolhardy at best. As of 2008, there were 59 nuclear power plants operating safely throughout France, producing an astounding 87.5% of that countries electricity. Public opinion polls show that 70% of the population there has a positive opinion of nuclear energy.
But here in America, we still cower in fear, thinking that films such as The China Syndrome, a three-decades old work of fiction, represent the nuclear energy industry of today. That is certainly not the case, and those myths need to be put to bed, for very good reasons.
These irrational fears have a very real impact on the lives of countless New Yorkers. The closing of Indian Point would effect numerous businesses that rely on the clean, affordable, safe electricity generated there. The loss of that energy supply has ramifications affecting the State’s tax base, as well as the company’s revenues…and thus their employees.
Of course, as a labor representative, it is the workers that are my main concern. In these hard economic times, when the federal government is pumping billions of dollars into stimulus programs in order to put people back to work, why should New York State undertake an action that will result in even greater unemployment? Particularly when that action is based on such a flawed premise?
With up to 40% of the lower Hudson Valley’s energy coming from Indian Point, closing that plant would result in the loss of jobs for thousands of New Yorkers, further devastating the already faltering economy of our state, while simultaneously sounding the final death knell for any manufacturing still being done between Albany and the New York City line.
I urge the leadership of our State to remember that while the squeaky wheel most often gets the grease, it does not always need it. Do not let a small but passionate minority control the debate on this vital issue. If New York is ever going to regain its status as the Empire State, the economic engine of the United States, and indeed the world, logic must overpower rhetoric, and fact must trump fiction.
New York needs clean, reliable, safe energy. New York needs industry. New York needs jobs. The continuing operation of Indian Point helps to achieve all of these goals. For the good of all New Yorkers, keep Indian Point open and operating.
Thank you.
Respectfully submitted,
James Hegarty
Mason Tenders’ District Council
