Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York Power Authority (NYPA), prodded by other state power centers have embarked upon a grand push to develop a new generation of nuclear power plants in New York State. 

For the last year and a half, the Governor and several state power regulatory agencies have become apprehensive as it appeared that New York was not keeping pace to achieve its legally mandated goal to provide 70% of its electrical power by non-polluting means by 2030. Additionally, a dramatic increase in electrical demand has occurred with the widespread planning and development of data centers and the Micron $100 billion computer chip manufacturing plant near Syracuse. The CLCPA was passed and signed in 2019 and a working group in 2022 produced the clean energy guidelines to achieve it. Nuclear power was not included in this plan, deemed unnecessary and problematic. The CLCPA did not include a means to finance this huge and necessary change in our energy production (relying on utility ratepayers as a default), in order to decrease our production of climate-changing gasses such as carbon dioxide and methane. Instead of finding a way to finance solar and wind projects, Governor Hochul shifted to a "everything" approach, which now includes 5 gigawatts in new generation nuclear power plants and huge new natural gas pipelines. Hochul sees this massive rollout of nuclear reactors and gas pipeline systems as a "bridge" while we are transitioning to a clean and safe electrical production system. However, it is hard to justify pouring water on one side of your house's fire while you are pouring gasoline on the other side! 

The New York Power Authority sent solicitations to many upstate communities and commercial suppliers for advanced nuclear projects at the end of October 2025. Schuyler County, through the Schuyler County Partnership for Economic Development (SCOPED), responded positively, as well as 23 other potential developers or partners and seven other upstate communities. Only a few days after this became public, Seneca Lake Guardian organized a protest at the Schuyler County building for Jan.12 (the next monthly meeting of the Schuyler County legislature). About 30 people gathered outside. Dr. Robert Howarth (Professor of Environmental Science at Cornell University) spoke and stated that the smaller less powerful new generation of nuclear reactors are no safer than the old, have increased security risks, are unproven (only two commercial reactors are in operation in the world), would take a decade or more to go online, still have the unsolved nuclear waste issue, and would still be the most costly form of electrical power production. In addition, Yvonne Taylor (VP of Seneca Lake Guardian) spoke of a new study from Harvard that showed a substantial increase in many forms of cancer within a 30 km radius of nuclear plants in Massachusetts. Joseph Campbell (President of Seneca Lake Guardian) spoke and he and Yvonne were interviewed by media representatives. Currently there are only four operating commercial nuclear power plants in New York, three in Oswego County and one in Wayne County. The Wayne County plant is the second oldest nuclear power plant in the country. The potential site for a new generation nuclear plant in Schuyler County is in Monterey.

Inside at the Schuyler County legislative meeting, several protestors spoke against the siting, construction, and operation of a nuclear power plant locally. SCOPED Executive Director Judy Cherry responded to the protestors' comments in a way that sounded like she was saying something but, in my opinion, really didn't come down solidly anywhere. She said repeatedly said that there would be no nuclear power plant in Schuyler County for at least ten years (which has been the minimum of time it takes to build one) and later in her response seemed to be pouring a lot of cold water on the proposal. SCOPED also commented that, "Schuyler County does not have the minimum site requirements for a one GW facility. However, for Schuyler to be a competitive location for year-round high energy users like manufacturing, we need to have direct access to advanced energy resources on a smaller scale. We applaud NYPA for being focused on the future needs of our economy and want to ensure Schuyler is at the table as new technology emerges for investments and jobs that this can bring." 

Note that prior to Gov. Hochul's State of the State address this January, she was calling for a TOTAL of 1 gigawatt (GW) of new nuclear energy in New York. In her address she promoted developing 5 GW of new nuclear power in NY.  The new generation small modular reactors (SMRs) typically have a power output ranging from 20 megawatts to 300 megawatts. So, does SCOPED's statement that Schuyler County doesn't have the minimum site requirements for a one GW facility really mean that it doesn't have the requirements for more than three of the largest new SMRs? (1,000 megawatts equals 1 gigawatt.)  Does she mean that we have the site requirements for fewer reactors? Or that, "don't sweat it now, they won't be online for a decade?"