The New York Public Service Commission has, for a second time, asked Entergy Corp. to work with the state to keep its James A. FitzPatrick plant in upstate New York operating.  The PSC has been working on plans to provide financial assistance by developing a new energy credit that “would, for the first time, place a monetary value on the zero-emission power produced by FitzPatrick and other qualified plants.”

PSC officials said they will undertake a rushed review of the plan and expect to have financial subsidies available for FitzPatrick by June, long before the plant’s scheduled closure next January.

The commission did not specify how much assistance it would provide. But officials said they want to prevent the nuclear plant’s closure because it would hurt Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s ambitious plan to reduce carbon emissions and fossil fuel consumption.

Entergy officials have stated that it is too late to save FitzPatrick.  “Entergy met with New York state officials from the governor’s office and with the PSC repeatedly over the last few years … Unfortunately, these discussions resulted in no meaningful progress or policy changes by New York State,” said Mike Twomey, a spokesman for Entergy Wholesale Commodities

The company added that if Cuomo wants to reduce carbon emissions, he should back off his insistence that Entergy shut down the Indian Point nuclear facility, which Cuomo says is unsafe because of its proximity to New York City.

“If the state is focused on reducing CO2 emissions, the clean energy standard should apply to Indian Point which is an essential generation resource critical to the state’s goal of reducing CO2 emissions,” said Tammy Holden, speaking for Entergy.