Rep. Mike Lawler wants to reopen the shuttered Indian Point nuclear plant in the Hudson Valley, calling it a way to decrease rising energy prices – and he’s got U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on his side.
At a press conference at the plant Friday with Wright, the Republican Congress member pointed the finger at Democratic lawmakers for the surge in costs. “Albany Democrats have created an absolute disaster for New York’s energy grid,” he said.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo shut down the plant in 2021 due to safety concerns. Holtec International purchased Indian Point and has been decommissioning it since.
Reopening the plant would be a challenging undertaking, requiring buy-in from the Village of Buchanan, the Town of Cortlandt, the Hendrick Hudson School District, Westchester County and the state government to agree. And that level of support seems unlikely.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has made plans to generate more nuclear power in New York, but she’s focused her efforts upstate – and has reiterated her opposition to reopening Indian Point. Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins, a Democrat, opposes it as well.“We have already been through this once,” he said in a statement Friday. “Our communities fought long and hard to close this facility, and we are not going to reopen that debate now and not ever.”
When asked about the governor’s opposition, Lawler said “I don’t really care what Kathy Hochul has previously said,” mentioning how she has backtracked before, like when she opposed enacting congestion pricing before implementing it.
“So maybe, just maybe, a little common sense will be applied, and the governor will show some courage and spine,” he said. “She says she has one, maybe she will show it and actually push back against some of the folks whose positioning on this is really not rooted in science. It’s not rooted in reality. It’s rooted in politics.”
