Energy Groups Urge Gov. Hochul to Restart Indian Point During ‘Climate Week NYC’
Meanwhile, Georgia Power and Google team up for nuclear upgrades and Italy greenlights plans to return to nuclear energy.
Climate Week NYC 2026 is underway, which means the usual gaggle of eco-activists and climate cultists is gathering in the Big Apple for more conferences and environmental hijinks.
And while attendees make their way through the urban dystopia that is now New York City, energy groups are taking a page from tactics learned from the meat industry and fossil fuel firms at previous United Nations climate conferences. They are creating new narratives for policies that are actually helpful to humanity…especially those in New York.
In this instance, energy groups have created a “Climate Week” campaign targeting Gov. Kathy Hochul, asking her to restart Indian Point’s dormant nuclear reactors.
The Democratic governor’s face will appear on a billboard on a truck alongside the message “open up Indian Point, or the heat goes out and the light goes out.”
Westchester County’s Indian Point was closed in 2021 under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo after years of pressure from anti-nuke activists and politicians who worried that its location just 40 miles out of Midtown would mean disaster in the case of a meltdown.
But Hochul is leading an initiative to try boost New York’s low energy generation capacity by building new nuclear reactors as residents get zapped by ever-surging utility bills.
“If Governor Hochul was sincere about jump-starting nuclear power to cut electricity prices, she would be pressing the Trump administration to expedite the recommissioning of the Indian Point nuclear power plant, where the extensive infrastructure needed is already in place,” said Steve Milloy, senior fellow at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute.
The American Energy Institute is proud to join other great energy organizations in urging @KathyHochul to reopen the Indian Point nuclear power plant.
Kathy Hochul's energy policies have been a disaster, and this is an opportunity to reverse some of that and allow affordable,… pic.twitter.com/TLeZ0cqxmV
— American Energy Institute (@4AmericanEnergy) September 22, 2026
Nuclear energy appears to be doing a bit better in Georgia, where Google plans to pay for upgrades to Georgia’s nuclear reactors under an agreement Georgia Power recently announced.
Georgia Power wants to upgrade four of the state’s older nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, near Augusta, and Plant Hatch, near Baxley, so they produce more energy. State regulators approved the Vogtle upgrades last year, but the specifics of how to pay for the work weren’t hashed out.
Now, the utility is asking the Georgia Public Service Commission for permission to move ahead with the updates at Plant Hatch too — as well as approval to create a new subscription program so large customers like Google can pay for both.
“We appreciate Google’s continued leadership in this space and partnership in developing this program, which we see as the latest example of how large-load growth can benefit all electric customers,” said Aaron Mitchell, senior vice president of strategic growth for Georgia Power, in a statement.
The tech giant needs energy to power its data centers, and has set a target of using only carbon-free energy by 2030. Since nuclear plants don’t use fossil fuel, the power they generate qualifies.
🍑 In Georgia
Google is helping pay to upgrade nuclear reactors, providing about $900 MILLION in benefits to Georgia Power customers.
Data centers are bringing more power onto the grid AND helping hardworking families save money.https://t.co/GKY3u01jL9
— Energy and Commerce Committee (@HouseCommerce) September 24, 2026
The U.S. isn’t the only nation seeking to restore nuclear power capability. Italy’s Senate recently approved legislation paving the way for a return to nuclear power decades after Chornobyl prompted the country to abandon atomic energy.
The measure cleared the upper house 81-51 with seven abstentions. It marks a major step in Premier Giorgia Meloni’s drive to bolster energy security and meet climate goals, even though the construction of possible new reactors is still years away.
The bill, which earlier passed the lower Chamber of Deputies, establishes a legal framework for next-generation nuclear technologies. It authorizes the government to draft implementing decrees over the next 12 months covering reactor licensing, safety standards, waste management and criteria for future sites.
The vote puts Italy on a path toward reintroducing nuclear power after voters twice rejected it in national referendums, first in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and again following Japan’s Fukushima accident in 2011.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's bill paving the way for a return to nuclear power in Italy after four decades was passed in the Senate by 81 votes to 51, with seven abstentions.https://t.co/0Y6CFWFyEH pic.twitter.com/bimQ3r4JfI
— World Nuclear News (@W_Nuclear_News) September 24, 2026
One has to wonder how much farther ahead the world might be today in developing safe, reliable, and effective nuclear power had panic-driven media coverage not amplified public fear in the aftermath of the Three Mile Island accident.
The 1979 event produced no confirmed public-health effects from radiation exposure, but it became a lasting symbol used to build opposition to nuclear energy and helped chill investment, construction, and public confidence for decades.
As New York, Georgia, Italy, and other jurisdictions reconsider nuclear power’s role in affordability, grid reliability, energy security, a the cost of that fear-based retreat is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore and harder to justify continuing.
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while the initial fixed costs of nuclear power is very high, the operating costs are very low. Those operating costs are much lower than the costs of building new wind and solar to replace the nuclear plant generation costs. Further, there are no costs associated with maintaining back up and other reliability costs.
Oliner below pointed out a massive error in my comment – The plant has been offline for 5 years which basically destroyed a $1b dollars of equipment.
I prefer the idea of many smaller reactors distributed across geography.
1- lower dependency on transmission lines
2- higher resilience to acts of God and terrorists
3- harder for agents to ransomware all of them. (maybe….depends)
4- states can ramp up according to demand and desire for industry.
In 1963, the nuclear powered submarine USS Thresher suffered catastrophic mechanical failures during deep diving tests in the Atlantic. It imploded into pieces, and sank in 8400 ft. of ocean, killing all 129 crewmembers.
In the 53 years since, multiple environnental impact studies have concluded the reactor and fuel are intact, and expected to remain stable in seawater for centuries without posing a hazard.
I was just a small boy when that tragedy occured, but read a lot about it as I grew up.
As an old man, I see and hear the rabid gaia worshipers rage against the ‘we’re all gonna die’ dangers of nuclear power, think about the USS Thresher in 8400 ft. of ocean, and conclude those gaia worshipers are morons. Nuclear power is the cleanest, near-unlimited power source on the planet.
Build the reactors.
Even if she WANTED to, she couldn’t. It’s been offline for five years, 5 years of total abandonment. Any number of critical parts and components are going to be damaged, degraded, looted, or just destroyed. They’d have to go over the entire thing inch by inch.
After 5 years it would frankly be cheaper and safer to just build a new one.
Which she won’t do either, of course.
thanks I overlooked the damage caused by the down time.
The evil, Islamo-Marxist-Tranny Dhimmi-crats are perpetual obstacles to peace, prosperity and progress. They are regressives, not “progressives,” their inapposite, self-congratulatory, self-bestowed moniker.
“But Hochul is leading an initiative to try boost New York’s low energy generation capacity by building new nuclear reactors”
I must be in the alternate universe where Euell Gibbons does Outback ads.
The consequences of NY State poor decisions re energy are in sight. Not ‘minor’ things like higher prices but catastrophic ones like availability. Closing nukes and coal electricity generation then limiting Nat gas while simultaneously increasing demand with ‘electric only’ requirements for new construction has created a big pending tab that’s gonna come due.
I live 40 miles from plant Hatch. My neighbor 3 doors down is a Master Millwright running a crew at plant hatch. The construction timeline has it completing just after he turns 62.
My power is supplied by GA Power from Plant Hatch. I am the last subscriber on the line so power is also supplied by Kohler. I lost shore power for 36 minutes today. My battery backup on my router failed so it had to reboot. It gave me time to fix a snack in the kitchen and reset clocks. I missed 5 minutes of halftime announcers.
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