Onondaga Nation

People of the Hills

Onondaga files Amicus Brief over New York State’s Clean Energy Plan

by

Governor Cuomo’s office has created a “clean energy plan” for New York State. This plan relies heavily on a multi-billion dollar bail out of the nuclear industry, including the 3 aging reactors in Oswego and also a 4th reactor near Rochester, NY.  This plan is all paid for by rate payers–including every electrical customer in the state.  Under this plan, and every household on the Nation pays extra every month for 12 years.

These extra payments collectively create a fund of $ 12 billion dollars that will be used to prop up the nuclear reactors, which otherwise cost too much to operate to compete against other energy sources.  Clearly this money should be used to build out more solar, wind and renewable energy generation.

The Sloop Clearwater [Pete Seeger] has sued to stop this; and their lawyers have asked the Nation to file an Amicus/ “friend of the court” appearance, to bring to the court the details of the harmful impacts of the nuclear industry on Indigenous peoples generally and the dangers created for the Nation and Haudenosaunee, by keeping the 3 Oswego reactors in operation for 12 more years.

The Amicus is a very limited appearance in court, in which the issues important to the Nation and the Haudenosaunee can be raised, but no counterclaims could be filed back; and there is no waiver of sovereign immunity in such an appearance. The issues covered in the Nation’s papers are:

 

  1. The horrible impacts on Indigenous peoples caused over decades of mining, milling, and transporting uranium;;
  2. The inherent dangers of the 3 aging reactors and their decades of accumulated spent fuel rods at Oswego, which are the same flawed design as those at Fukushima;
  3. The damages to Lake Ontario and its fish and other wildlife cause by these reactors, in violation of the Nation’s stewardship of its original territory and waters; and
  4. The dangers to the Nations, its citizens, waters, etc., from the transportation of nuclear wastes down Rt. 81, over the clear opposition of the Nation’s leaders.

The Nation was also joined in this Amicus by the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force and the American Indian Law Alliance.

 

Click to read the Amicus here.