Gov. Kathy Hochul today said nuclear power and next-generation technologies, not fracked natural gas, should be in the state’s energy mix as New York works to speed the transition to a clean-energy grid.
“From wind and solar to geothermal and hydrogen or even splitting an atom, this is the possibility that lies before us,” Hochul said today in Syracuse. “And I’ll move heaven and earth. I will move heaven and earth to make sure that we have the strongest economy with the strongest energy plans that protect Mother Earth from this long, long assault by mankind.”
The governor’s remarks kicked off a state energy summit that includes panels on technological advances in nuclear power that could help the state achieve its climate goals.
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It was one of the only times Hochul has publicly mentioned adding nuclear power to the grid, even if she didn’t say the word out loud.
Was it a rhetorical flourish or an attempt to sidestep mention of a controversial energy source whose opponents have frequently linked it to disasters at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima?
“I don’t think Hochul hid from nuclear,” said Keith Schue, a member of the pro-nuclear advocacy group Nuclear New York. “In fact, I think her phrase ‘split the atom’ may have been intended to add some spice to the topic.”
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The governor’s comments come as the state appears to be warming to the idea of adding advanced nuclear power technology to the grid as it becomes clear New York won’t achieve its climate goals on time.
In recent months, several state agencies said the state would not achieve a 70% reliance on renewable energy — wind, solar and hydropower — by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2040. Surging amounts of electricity needed to power cars, heating systems and large-scale data centers are expected to increase the strain on the grid in the years to come.
The USA TODAY Network reported last month that the Hochul administration met with a developer of small nuclear reactors recently to learn more about the current state of the technology.
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Doreen Harris, the president of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, said the recent interest has been jumpstarted by bipartisan support in Washington that could drive investment and make nuclear power more affordable.
On Thursday, NYSERDA released a 24- page blueprint mapping out future discussion of advanced nuclear technology.
“Advanced nuclear technologies could offer attractive possibilities for New York, with its scalability, economic development, low land use, and potential applications of process heat,” the report says. “It may represent an opportunity for additional grid capacity to support an electrifying economy, that can complement New York’s buildout of renewables.”
Under Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the state brokered a 2017 agreement to shutter the Indian Point nuclear power plant in the Westchester County village of Buchanan, some 35 miles north of New York City.
But the closure has led to a spike in the amount of fossil fuels needed to power the downstate region, a trend Hochul and others want to reverse.
Peaker plants need to close
Hochul said the Champlain Power Hudson Express, hundreds of miles of cable that will deliver hydropower from Canada to New York City along the Hudson River, will help reduce the region’s reliance on natural gas. In Thursday’s speech she committed to shutting down natural gas-powered peaker plants in Queens and the Bronx , whose output has increased since Indian Point shut down in 2021.
“This will power a fifth of New York City’s homes, reduce our reliance on peaker plants and all the talk about asthma alley — I want them shut down,” she said.
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Much of the talk about advanced nuclear technology has focused on small modular reactors that are manufactured in factories and generally cheaper to build than traditional nuclear reactors like the water-cooled versions at Indian Point.
But they’ve yet to be widely approved for commercial use and their deployment is years away.
Technological hurdles aside, efforts to add nuclear power to the grid will likely encounter strong pushback from environmental groups.
Opponents rally after Hochul speech
On the streets outside the Syracuse Marriot Thursday, anti-nuclear groups carrying signs reading “Nuclear No” held a rally to challenge Hochul’s newfound interest in nuclear power.
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“Our Governor is wining and dining dirty energy snake oil salesmen when she should be doubling down on clean, renewable energy buildout — New Yorkers are having none of it,” said Laura Shindell, the state director of Food & Water Watch, one of the leaders in the 2014 effort to get the state to ban natural gas fracking. “Our climate future is at a crossroads, and Hochul is perilously close to taking a dangerous step in the wrong direction.”
Joining Shindell was Cornell University professor Robert Howarth. “She (Hochul) does unfortunately have this infatuation with nuclear power, this distant shining object that‘s way off there somehow that she thinks might help as part of the solution,” Howarth told the crowd. “We need to tell her she’s wrong.”
More than 150 groups opposed to nuclear power signed a letter urging Hochul to recommit to deploying wind and solar power to achieve the state’s climate goals.
They were countered by the New York Energy Alliance, which supports an all-of-the-above approach to solving the state's energy issues, using nuclear power to complement natural gas and hydropower.
"The Governor is soft-launching the inevitable," said Brian Wilson, a leader in the alliance. "The last 50 years of New York's energy and environmental policies have been short-sighted and destructive for our state, and drastic changes are needed before she and the Democrats are left holding the bag. We cannot electrify everything and re-industrialize on solar panels and wind turbines. Professors and activists cannot keep the lights on, but nuclear, natural gas, and hydro can."
Hochul said wind, solar and hydropower will remain in the mix as the state works to clean up its energy grid.
She recalled a childhood along the shores of Lake Erie when the skies were polluted from smoke coming from steel plants.
“We are not going backwards on our climate goals,” she said. “We're not fracking, we're not burning coal, we're not going backwards, we're not going back to the polluted skies of my childhood when I grew up thinking that the skies were supposed to be orange. Because, if you grew up in Lackawanna or in the neighboring towns, there were no blue skies.”
Thomas C. Zambito covers energy, transportation and economic growth for the USA Today Network’s New York State team. He’s won dozens of state and national writing awards from the Associated Press, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Deadline Club and others during a decades-long career that’s included stops at the New York Daily News, The Star-Ledger of Newark and The Record of Hackensack. He can be reached at tzambito@lohud.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Hochul: Nuclear power needs to be in state's energy mix to achieve climate goals
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