Wheelabrator Improves Our Quality of Life, Must Remain
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
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, medication, housing, commuting costs, etc.
Wheelabrator has provided energy, employment and tax revenue since 1984. I would submit that, after having moved from Mount Vernon to Peekskill in 2011, my health has certainly not been negatively affected and, in significant respects, is better now than it has ever been.
In its first 30 years of operation, Wheelabrator converted more than 20 million tons of waste into energy. It 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 60,000 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 Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, certain substances can cause one to develop allergic asthma, including allergies to 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 energy 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 charges.
All too often, the virtue-signallers endorse 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 – hurting 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 triple to satisfy the egos of pie-in-the-sky activists.
MaryAnn McCarra-Fitzpatrick
Peekskill
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