Right now, there are enough new gas-fired power plants under construction to supply nearly half of New England s peak demand. Two new gas pipelines are now operational, adding enough natural gas supply to New England to power all the new plants currently being built. These new plants will come on line over the next one to two years, to compete against the old, dirty units to supply our electric power. Salem Harbor and all the other old units will keep running unless a new plant displaces it and supplies our power instead the winner will be the one that can produce the power at the lowest cost, selling it into the newly-competitive electricity market. Many of the old, inefficient units will be replaced by the new, cleaner ones.
Utilities are no longer monopolies that can pass along all their costs to consumers.
Any costs of clean-up would be borne by the power plant owners, not consumers.