By Laila Kearney and Timothy Gardner
NEW YORK, March 10 (Reuters) – New York Governor Kathy Hochul opposes the Trump administration’s campaign to restart a nuclear power plant just north of New York City, her office told Reuters this week, days after the U.S. energy secretary visited the plant to urge its reopening.
U.S. power demand is rising for the first time in decades on the boom in AI data centers and a rush to electrify everything from industry and buildings to transportation. To help meet the demand President Donald Trump has set a goal for the U.S. to quadruple nuclear power capacity by 2050.
“The governor has emphatically stated she will not support the reopening of Indian Point and is instead pushing for a significant expansion of round-the-clock, emission-free advanced nuclear power in upstate New York communities that want it,” said Ken Lovett, senior communications adviser on Energy and Environment for Hochul.
Without support from Hochul, a Democrat, Indian Point would likely not be able to restart.
On Friday, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright held a press event at Indian Point to promote nuclear power and renewed operations at the plant. Holtec, the site’s owner, has been decommissioning the power plant following its closure in 2021.
Opposition to Indian Point, a potential target for attacks, increased after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Holtec, a company that has long provided services in the nuclear industry, including shutting plants down, now wants to get into the reactor-operating business. It is in the process of attempting to restart a shut Michigan nuclear power plant.
Under contracts with Microsoft and Google, power companies Constellation and NextEra are also trying to resume operations at the former Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania and a plant in Iowa.
“The Trump Administration believes energy policy should focus on the American people — not politics — by expanding reliable American energy, creating more American jobs, and lowering electricity prices for every American family and business across the country,” Wright said in a statement.
While Holtec CEO Kris Singh, who was present at last week’s event, applauded the idea of restarting the plant, the company told Reuters that the effort would require buy-in from multiple political and government agencies.
“Should the political will and financial means be available that the state wants to see a repower, we would be willing to work towards that goal. Otherwise, we will continue on our path to safely decommission IPEC,” a company spokesman said.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair Ho Nieh told reporters on Tuesday at a conference: “If a restart decision is made by the owners to restart the unit, they will come to the NRC and we will talk with them about what it would take to restart the Indian Point plant.”
Hochul has called for 5 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity to be built in New York. She has so far directed the New York Power Authority to develop and build a gigawatt of new capacity in upstate New York, farther from New York City than Indian Point.
(Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York and Tim Gardner in Washington; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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