From the New York Energy Alliance https://x.com/NYEnergyAllies/status/2102107759516758150
New York State now says, in writing, that closing Indian Point raised emissions.
“As seen by the closure of Indian Point Energy Center, the termination of clean, dispatchable resources leads immediately to increased fossil use and higher emissions.”
That’s the Advanced Nuclear Policy Options Paper, filed by the Department of Public Service on June 12 to open the Nuclear Reliability Backbone case, which is the proceeding that will decide whether New York builds 5 GW of new nuclear.
The sentence immediately before it reads: “This is not speculation.”
It isn’t. Indian Point Units 2 and 3, representing 2,014 MW of carbon-free capacity that ran above 90 percent of the time, closed in April 2020 and April 2021.
Here is what happened to carbon downstate. Every generating facility in the ten counties around Indian Point, as reported to DEC: 12.2 million short tons of CO₂ in 2019. 16.2 million in 2024. Up 33 percent, and up every single year since the closures.
It isn’t that more plants got built. The downstate fleet shrank from 26 reporting facilities to 21. Fewer plants, more carbon. 2020 was a pandemic year with depressed demand, but emissions rose anyway.
The same state government that agreed to shut Indian Point down is now citing the result as its reason to keep the rest of the fleet running.