Gov. Cuomo accuses a power company of “callous disregard” for workers by closing an upstate plant. But it’s the gov displaying “callous disregard” — for the laws of economics.
Entergy filed a notice with the feds Wednesday that it will shut its FitzPatrick nuclear-power plant near Oswego by 2017. When it first announced that plan this month, Cuomo hit the roof.
“Good corporate citizenship must appreciate that there are many factors that count as the ‘bottom line,’ ” he said, vowing to “pursue every legal and regulatory avenue . . . to stop Entergy’s actions and its callous disregard” for its 600-plus workers.
Memo to the governor: Companies aren’t in business to provide jobs, but to make a profit by selling goods and services that folks need.
FitzPatrick struggled because energy supplies are plentiful in the area, and demand is weak (and getting weaker, as folks flee for lack of . . . jobs). Plus, low oil and natural-gas prices and state subsidies for “renewables” like solar power have cut nuclear power’s cost edge. If the plant can’t compete, it’s a waste of resources to keep it open.
Meanwhile, Cuomo still wants to shut Entergy’s Indian Point plant in Westchester (and to hell with the 1,000-plus workers there), arguing that the nuke plant is dangerously close to the city.
Get that logic? Entergy mustn’t produce electricity where lots of people live and need it (Indian Point supplies a quarter of the city’s juice), but must run plants where few need it.
This may make sense to Cuomo, but it’s no way to run a business.
The gov refuses to face what really ails Upstate’s economy: New York’s high taxes and burdensome regulations — which he’s making worse.
He banned fracking, which would have goosed upstate’s economy. He’s pushing to hike the minimum wage to $15 an hour, a recipe for disaster in lower-cost-of-living upstate.
A new study by the Empire Center and the American Action Forum found the hike would cost 200,000 to 588,000 jobs statewide — most, outside the city. So gripe about FitzPatrick’s 600?
Cuomo has also tried to use state cash to lure firms, as with his Buffalo Billion. More folly: One of those firms, Soraa, is abandoning Buffalo to locate in suburban Syracuse.
Another, SolarCity, got similar “job-creating” aid from Oregon and then used prison labor, paying less than $1 an hour.
If only Cuomo would learn: It’s not too little state involvement in the market that’s costing New York jobs — but too much.