NEWS RELEASE — Port Gibson, Miss. - The Mayor and Board of Aldermen of Port Gibson, Miss., adopted a resolution Monday night endorsing a second nuclear power plant next to Entergy's Grand Gulf Nuclear Station and strongly encouraging Entergy to build another unit at Grand Gulf, located about seven miles from Port Gibson.
The Port Gibson Board of Aldermen is the second local government agency to support a new nuclear plant in Claiborne County. The Claiborne Board of Supervisors adopted a similar resolution Dec. 6.
"Nuclear energy is a safe, low-cost, emission-free source of power that is not dependent on foreign oil and gas. We need more of it," said Mayor Amelda Arnold.
The Port Gibson resolution acknowledged the existing Grand Gulf nuclear plant as, "a good community partner" whose property taxes include $480,000 to Port Gibson through Claiborne County government and another $202,000 directly to Port Gibson. Claiborne receives $8 million in all.
Mayor Arnold noted the local taxes permit Claiborne County residents to "enjoy among the lowest" auto license tags and homeowner property taxes in the state of Mississippi and only about a third of those in neighboring counties.
The annual auto tag for a typical 2003 pickup truck is only $118 in Claiborne (Port Gibson) compared to $404 in Jackson (Hinds County) and $440 in Vicksburg (Warren County). The property tax on a $100,000 home is $404 a year in Port Gibson, compared to $1,393 in Jackson and $911 in Vicksburg.
For those reasons, the Port Gibson Board of Aldermen said it had not participated in opposition to Entergy Nuclear's application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for an early site permit for a new unit at Grand Gulf. The early site permit qualifies the site as suitable for a new nuclear unit and is good for 20 years. Entergy has made no decision as yet to build a second unit.