If you like your air-conditioning, you can keep your air-conditioning.
That’s the state’s vow, as it proposes shutting Westchester’s Indian Point nuclear- power plant for 42 days between May 10 and Aug. 10 each year. If you believe it, we have some health insurance to sell you.
The shutdown idea will be on tap today at a Department of Environmental Conservation hearing. Folks who don’t read The Post might not know this, since the hearing wasn’t listed on the agency’s calendar (perhaps in an effort to keep turnout low).
Only in New York would a state agency suggest closing a power plant in summer, when electricity is needed most. The state says a summer shutdown will help protect Hudson River fish harmed by the plant’s use of river water.
Alternatively, it says Indian Point could build massive towers that recycle water.
But the multibillion-dollar cost for new towers would balloon electric bills. And besides, there’s scant evidence fish are being seriously harmed.
Last year, Riverkeeper’s Robert Kennedy said the Hudson is one of the few rivers in our hemisphere “that still has strong spawning stocks of all its historical species. It’s Noah’s Ark,” he said. “The last refuge” for animals going extinct elsewhere.
Meantime, Gov. Cuomo wants to shut the plant for good. Which is why many think the state’s summer closing plan is really meant to make Indian Point uneconomical.
New York’s electric costs are already among the nation’s highest. Growing demand will only push costs higher — and Gov. Cuomo’s fracking ban doesn’t help.
Surely, New York needs more juice, not less.