A revealing statement was made the other day, by Westchester County exec Andrew Spano, waiting in the icy cold of the Annsville Creek kayak club, for John Hall's press conference. The outdoor location is a popular one for such events about Indian Point, because its domes are beautifully visible from the spot, and can form a backdrop for whatever pol is adding his particular genius to the mix that day. Commenting on the uncomfortable temperature, Andy quipped that they should have held it indoors "and used a picture" instead.
Last week, a local blog claimed that a Papier Mache' Indian Point was obscuring the real Indian Point in the press. linkAndy Spano says they should "Use a picture instead". Was Andy finally on to something?
After years of malicious exaggeration for effect, and microscopic overconcern about ephemeral minutiae at the stalwart old plant, those in opposition to its existence have painted themselves into a corner. Having created a fictional Indian Point to swear at, and toss pebbles at like hajj pilgrims in Mecca, they were finally coming to grips with the fact that as much as they despised the false Indian Point, their constituents needed the real Indian Point, and needed it desperately. As the icy 17 degree winds whipped in off the Hudson like a blast of reality, Spano was chilled into the realization that he'd rather be indoors, where Indian Point could keep him warm, shaking his fist at a picture, than experiencing reality. Quite an admission, Mr. County Executive! Perhaps your singlemost instant of pure insight!
Executives and Congresspeople, along with Senators, and even Presidents, are often lied to. Seeking causes to champion, they stand there stymied in their white knight outfits, clueless, until a staffer (or Jack Abramoff) hands them a briefing paper, containing news of whatever "evil" they are to vanquish today. If the briefing paper contains nonsense, the county, the congressional district, or the entire country can be led down the shining path to destruction, and I think we are all very familiar with THAT. I've not decided just yet, that our senatorial/congressional system is broken beyond repair, but hearing of Nancy Pelosi's new 757 commuting jet, and John Hall's rehash of a rejected Maurice Hinchey bill proposing we officially return to an obsolete, long superseded, archaic and unrevealing "Independent Safety Assessment" to tell us whether the fictional Indian Point is as bad as they themselves have been saying, I am being edged closer and closer to a final decision that unrealistic camera-seeking faux leadership is leaving us all in the lurch, screwing the common man royally, for the sake of pictures and celebrity pride.
Because their own staff cherry picked lurid untruths about Indian Point, to provide them a fictional electoral theme, now they band together proposing a fictional solution to their self-induced fictional problems, an ISA. Don't they understand that the only time an ISA was ever held, in 1996, the NRC leveraged the concept into an entire new way of doing business, one that NRC now follows daily, the ROP- or Reactor Oversight Process. The ISA itself was hurriedly and somewhat badly done, serving as a kind of sketch pad for NRC to write a new policy on. After 1996, they amplified those notes, wrote that new policy, and have perfected it daily ever since. Asking NRC to return to the sketch pad now, is like asking the NASA moonshot engineers to return to some scribbled hand calcs on a tablecloth, and ignore the carefully programmed computer guidance system that eventually was crafted from those scribbles.
But Hall, Spano, Hinchey, Lowey et al have a paper problem to fix, and a paper solution to do it with! So we get press releases, meetings on the frozen shore, planted articles about "momentum", and absolutely no buy-in by the public. What gives? It seems John Q realizes our power brokers are having a private little tempest in an exclusive Democratic teapot, and that it won't raise the temperature above 17 degrees, or intercept the wind that Andy so despised. The one thing it might do, if we insist on humoring these camera hounds, is take away the power the region requires, so that Andy can go indoors, and warm his hands up, and shake his fist at that picture, for all to see on channel 12!
The oh-so-bracing paper momentum that Greg Clary wrote about 5 days ago is spent now, lasting only about as long as paper momentum ever does, as we all sit indoors, grateful for our heat, our lighting, our news , entertainment and our realworld work, all brought to us courtesy of the real Indian Point, as Andy 'n' Hall mudwrestle with that slippery faux Indian Point all over again, knowing that another election is coming soon, to your area...
