March 6, 2026, 7:02 p.m. ET
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright used a visit to the shuttered Indian Point nuclear power plant on Friday, March 6 to call on state Democrats to abandon their opposition to a reopening and clear the way for a clean energy source that will drive down surging electricity costs.
“Doesn’t matter the weather, doesn’t matter the condition,” Wright said during a press conference at the Buchanan plant, the plant’s Hudson River cooling towers providing the backdrop. “Nuclear power is there rain, shine, under any conditions, and for 60 years right on this location and with a little bit of common sense and a rebuilding effort 60 more years of 2-plus gigawatts of power can be right here.”
Wright said the job could be done in five years at a cost of around $10 billion, with energy-hungry data centers sharing in the costs.
Standing beside him was Kris Singh, the CEO of Holtec International, the New Jersey company hired to tear down Indian Point, a decommissioning soon approaching its sixth year.
“Let’s put it this way,” Singh said when asked whether a restart would include advanced nuclear reactors still years away from commercial viability or traditional reactors like those used at Indian Point. “It will be new nuclear at the old plant. We are going to make numerous improvements, but it will be the same power output but maybe a little more. Maby 10% more.”
Under the conditions of the 2017 shutdown agreement negotiated with the state, Westchester County, the Town of Cortlandt and the village of Buchanan, would first need to sign off.
Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins has called an Indian Point restart “a hard no.” And in October, Gov. Kathy Hochul reaffirmed her opposition in a letter to Jenkins. “There have been no discussions or plans, and I would not support efforts to do so,” Hochul wrote.
But the governor has conceded the decision to shutter the plant was “done in haste” and has led to an uptick in carbon emissions as the downstate region becomes more dependent on fossil fuels like natural gas for its energy needs.
At Friday’s press conference, Rep. Mike Lawler, a Hudson Valley Republican facing reelection in his 17th District this year, said Hochul should follow the lead of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer who backed the reopening of the Palisades nuclear power plant, a job being done by Holtec.
“You have a Democratic governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, by no stretch a moderate or a conservative, she sees the benefit of this,” Lawler said. “This is an issue of political will and being honest about these issues. Nuclear power is the cleanest source of energy. The Democrats want to talk about net-zero carbon emissions. This is it.”
Lawler suggested local opposition could be overcome if Hochul gets behind the idea, citing among other things her decision to allow the state to approve a pipeline that will deliver gas to New York City.
“She said she wouldn’t do congestion pricing and look what happened,” Lawler said, referring to the toll on drivers entering Manhattan at 60th Street and below. “She did. So, I don’t really care what Kathy Hochul has previously said. The question is, is there the political will to actually do something to drive down energy costs because everything the Democrats have done over the last decade has been to drive up energy costs in this state.”
Hochul spokesman Ken Lovett said the governor remains opposed to reopening Indian Point and suggested Lawler’s support for a reopening was an attempt to shift blame for rising energy prices across the U.S.
“It’s hypocritical that the same Michael Lawler who previously attacked Holtec over its decommissioning plans is now suddenly calling for Indian Point’s reopening in order to desperately divert attention from his failure to get his party to address rising energy prices in New York and across the country,” said Ken Lovett, the governor’s senior communications advisor on Energy and Environment. “The Governor has emphatically stated she will not support the re-opening of Indian Point and is instead pushing her Ratepayer Protection Plan and a realistic energy strategy designed to keep the lights on and costs down.”
Hochul has enlisted the New York Power Authority to develop nuclear power in upstate New York communities that support it.
Opponents of a restart held their own press conference outside the gates of Indian Point while Lawler and Wright joined Singh for a tour.
“Nuclear is not the answer,” said Courtney Williams, a leader of the Safe Energy Rights Group. “It’s too costly, takes too long to bring online, and that’s assuming best case scenarios for developing new technology or using the same old nuclear. Not to mention the harms of mining uranium and the failure of the Department of Energy to solve the growing nuclear waste problem.”
Indian Point is stuck with 127 cement and steel canisters of spent nuclear fuel due to the federal government’s failure to secure a permanent underground repository for the nation’s nuclear waste.
A restart could prove an economic lifeline to Cortlandt and the village of Buchanan whose budgets have struggled to make up for the millions of dollars in property taxes lost when Indian Point shut down.
“It was a tragedy what happened here,” said Buchanan Mayor Theresa Knickerbocker. “Five years later and we see the spiraling prices…We’re talking about a shortage of housing. So, if you’re going to do all that where is that power coming from? This is the answer to the energy shortage here.”
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
