To the Editors:

19 August 2024

To the Editors:

Most, if not all, households will, with the approach of a national election, consider what are called “kitchen table” issues. These include, of course, the cost of providing light and heat in our homes.

What have we seen since Indian Point closed? Yes, an increase in the cost of power, which compels households to somehow cope with this enlarged expense, while at the same time experiencing ever-increasing costs for food, consumer goods and services, medications, housing, commuting costs, et cetera.

The Wheelabrator has provided energy, employment, and tax revenue since 1984. I would submit that, after having moved from Mount Vernon, NY in 2011, to Peekskill, my health has certainly not been negatively affected and, in significant respects, is better now than it has ever been.

In their first 30 years of operation they converted more than 20 million tons of waste into energy. Wheelabrator has continuously achieved emission levels well below state and federal standards to protect public health. Their process reduces greenhouse gas emissions by diverting waste from landfills. The waste is burned to heat boilers, producing high pressure steam for a turbine generating 60K kilowatts of electricity per hour, sufficient to power 67,000 homes.

As per the American Lung Association the main causes of asthma are: allergies, obesity, smoking, air pollution, chronic health conditions, and a family history of asthma (factors which certainly existed prior to the opening of Wheelabrator). As per the AAFA certain substances can cause one to develop allergic asthma, including: dust mites, pet dander, mold, pollen, cockroaches, and rodents. I do not think Wheelabrator causes these risk factors in residential housing.

One also must consider how increased electricity rates affect small businesses. Greatly increased electricity rates have effectively shuttered many businesses in Germany, England, and Ireland as their power plants were shut down and power bills doubled or tripled. Increased rates kill businesses, which would ordinarily employ people, who in turn pay taxes and support their local economies.

In individual homes, in Europe, many must choose between heating and food due to skyrocketing electricity charges.

All too often, the virtue-signallers have policies which in practice will harm those who can least afford it—seniors on fixed incomes, single parents scraping by, families coping with increased costs for food, housing, consumer goods, medications, commuting costs, tuition fees — worsening the economic juggling act for ordinary families—so they may clap themselves on the back whilst the rest of us are made cold and poor by exorbitant energy costs.

Especially in this economic climate—we want abundant, reliable, inexpensive power. We do not want our power bills to be tripled to satisfy the egos of pie-in-the-sky activists.

Yours sincerely,

MaryAnn McCarra-Fitzpatrick

Peekskill, NY