Gibson Drops Plan For Nuclear Plant In The 20th CD

Since shortly after arriving in Washington, Republican Rep. Chris Gibson has been one of the new Republican Congress' most ardent backers of nuclear power.  Earlier this year Gibson sent staffers to coordinate with members of the Easton Town Board in Washington County to restart a long dead plan to place a nuclear power plant on the Hudson River almost across the river from the Saratoga National Battleground Park and the Solomon National Cemetery.  Despite the Easton Town Board's support (all Republicans), Gibson's proposal brought strong opposition in Washington County, one of the best dairy farming regions on the Northeastern US.

However, according to the Glens Falls Post Star, Gibson has now done an about face, and no longer supports "at least for now" building a large nuclear facility in the Hudson River Valley.   The paper reported,

"After I studied this in detail, it was clear to me that where we can make an impact at the federal, state and local level is with transmission," Gibson said during an interview at his Glens Falls district office on Monday.

 Gibson now supports improving transmission line capacity, which has been advocated by people studying local economic development issues for many years.   In the 1990s the City of Glens Falls, under the leadership of a Democratic controlled Common Council,  considered creating a municipal electric utility.   One of the options was to "wheel," or bring power from remote resources, over long distance transmission lines from sources like Hydro Quebec, which has surplus power to sell at prices very substantially below that of a new nuclear plant.   In fact,  in the Northern New York area encompassing the 20th CD, nuclear power could not be competitive with power from Quebec, and would actually substantially drive up the cost of electricity across the region.

For more on this story, check out the Post Star story.