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(make sure that the word “comment” appears in the subject line)

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Sample Comment

Subject: “Comment on Draft NYS Energy Plan – Support for Advanced Nuclear Energy”

Thank you for this opportunity to comment on the draft State Energy Plan. As a clean energy advocate, I appreciate that the draft document is honest about the real-world challenges of deep decarbonization.  Now, more than ever, it has become clear that if New York is serious about meeting its climate goals while delivering dependable, abundant energy essential for a vibrant economy, we will need all available solutions. That includes advanced nuclear power.

By directing NYPA to build additional nuclear capacity, Governor Hochul is demonstrating bold leadership that our state needs—and as she has said, taking nuclear off the table means burning more fossil fuels. We can’t afford to go backwards. New York clearly must retain its existing nuclear and hydropower assets that have provided reliable clean energy for decades. However, as we expand solar and wind, we must also grow advanced nuclear power to provide the balance of firm resources required for a functional grid.

I encourage the Energy Planning Board to more fully integrate excellent content within the nuclear chapter of the draft into the rest of the document. The CLCPA Scoping Plan included analysis by NYSERDA indicating that New York could benefit from 4 gigawatts of advanced nuclear, so the plan should consider scenarios for at least that much by 2040.

Across upstate New York, communities are excited about advanced nuclear. Nuclear not only offers carbon-free, baseload or dispatchable power that reduces system-level cost. It also has the least land, material, and mining requirements of any source, letting New York respect communities while protecting nature. Advanced nuclear is green energy for the 21^st century. Let’s make it part of New York’s future.

[your name]

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Feel free to incorporate our suggestions, but it is best to use your own words (spoken comments are limited to no more than 2 minutes per person).

Additional Talking Points

• Meeting Climate Goals – Renewables can help, but they won’t get us across the finish line. Advanced nuclear power is available today and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) will be on the market in less than decade. That’s good timing to help meet New York’s ambitious goal of carbon-free electricity. New York will need all tools available to decarbonize while providing abundant reliable energy for the future. A lopsided extreme approach that is fixated on intermittent solar/wind and shuns firm nuclear will fail and lock us into fossil fuels. A balanced strategy that involves a rational expansion of both nuclear and renewables can succeed.

• Reliability – Nuclear is the most reliable source of zero-emission energy. The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) and NYSERDA finds that even if the state pursues a massive buildout of wind, solar, and storage, it will need 20-45 Gigawatts of additional “firm” generation capacity as backup to keep the lights on when those other resources are unavailable. That is as much or more capacity than New York’s entire fleet of fossil fuel power plants. Advanced nuclear power offers reliable carbon-free electricity 24/7 (baseload) or on demand (dispatchable), meeting the needs of New Yorkers while providing the abundant, reliable energy for business and industry to prosper in the 21^st century.

• Protecting the Environment – Nuclear power is the “greenest” form of energy on the planet. It has the small physical footprint of any energy source, and requires less mining for extractive materials than any other form of energy (including solar and wind). In fact, a 1-gigawatt reactor produces as much energy annually as 30,000 acres of solar panels or 700 giant land-based wind turbines—and it does so without batteries, excessive transmission, backup generation, or other extensive grid support infrastructure. That saves farmland, forest, wildlife habitat and tribal lands. Spent nuclear fuel (“waste”) can even be recycled.

• You Get What You Pay For – The long-term system-level benefits of reliable 24/7 nuclear power make it a
  far more valuable asset than underperforming, intermittent sources that require expensive storage, backup generation, and excessing transmission to be functional at scale. Relicensing existing nuclear power plants is the most cost-effective way of limiting carbon emissions, and advanced nuclear power is projected to cost roughly the same as intermittent offshore wind. A nuclear reactors can last 80 years or more, whereas solar, wind, and batteries require frequent replacement.

• Safety – Nuclear power has been in use for over 60 years, with over 400 reactors now operating in 32 countries worldwide. Over that time, it has proven itself on a per-energy-unit basis to be as safe as renewables and far safer than fossil fuels. In the entire history of commercial nuclear power, nobody has ever been harmed by dry cask storage of spent nuclear fuel, whereas fossil fuel waste (air pollution) contributes to millions of deaths annually. Employing modern inherently-safe and passively-safe technology, advanced reactors improve even further upon this exceptional record.

• High-Wage Union Jobs – Organized labor loves nuclear energy and strongly supports its expansion. Nuclear power has the highest-paying and most unionized workforce in the energy sector. It creates clean, skilled, family-sustaining jobs for a vibrant economic future. And unlike solar panels, wind turbines, or batteries, nuclear power does not rely heavily on overseas material supply chains (especially from China). New York has the companies, workers, and investment capital for this Made-in-America industry to thrive.

• Public Support – Support for nuclear across the country is on the rise as people learn more. In fact, support tends to be highest around existing reactors because host communities understand the technology, value the high-wage family-sustaining jobs created, and appreciate the economic benefits received. Oswego County’s support for more nuclear is a prime example of this. Other upstate communities are on board too. Recent surveys from Pew Research and Gallup find that more Americans support nuclear than oppose it, and those of Moxie Strategies and Radiant Energy show that a majority of New Yorkers favor increasing nuclear capacity.

• Role of Public Power – Previously instrumental to developing large-scale hydropower and nuclear, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) has a long history of delivering reliable, affordable electricity. It is precisely the right role of public power to help finance and build projects that are vital to energy security. The American Public Power Association (APPA), which has existed since 1940 and represents not-for-profit community-owned utilities powering 2000 towns and cities nationwide, is a strong supporter of nuclear energy.