Reference no: EM132471581

Governor Andrew Cuomo has been trying to close the Indian Point nuclear plant since 2001. The governor and his environmentalist friends worry about the safety of nuclear plants and their impact on fish. The Indian Point plant sucks in 2.5 billion gallons of water out of the Hudson River every day to cool its generators. It also sucks up and kills millions of fish and larvae. More fish are killed when the heated water is returned to the river. The state's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) wants at least a temporary shutdown in the spawning and migration season (May 10- August 10). Better yet, they want Entergy Corp., the plant's owner, to reengineer a closed-circuit cooling system that will end the fish kills.

The DEC faces two problems. First, Entergy says it would be far too costly to reengineer the cooling system; no chance of that happening. Second, electricity consumers need the power Indian Point provides. The plant supplies 2,000 megawatts of electricity a day--about 25 percent of New York City's daily use. Although DEC promises to help find an alternative source of power, New Yorkers aren't willing to risk blackouts and brownouts to save a few fish.

A) If the Indian Point nuclear plant were charged one-tenth of a dollar ($0.10) for every gallon of water it used, how much would it pay in annual emission fees?