New York State's Energy Blueprint
By: Frank Mattimoe
New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul announced in June 2025 that the New York Power Authority ("NYPA") should begin developing plans to permit and construct an advanced nuclear energy plant in Upstate New York. The planned facility would produce at least one gigawatt ("GW") of energy, adding to the state’s 3.4 GW current nuclear energy generation mix. The new plant announcement brings into motion the second stage of the governor’s New York Nuclear Energy Master Plan, the blueprint announced during her State of the State address in January 2025 (the “Blueprint”). The Master Plan seeks to decarbonize the state’s economy and address rising energy needs from the semiconductor industry, Artificial Intelligence, and the electrification of the state grid. During the State of the State, the governor also announced a ten-state consortium whose work would help standardize reactor designs, drive down costs, and create a pipeline for private sector entities to get involved in advanced plant construction.
The Blueprint refers to an “advanced” reactor as “recently designed” and incorporating versatile safety and operational capabilities. Advanced reactors include both light-water reactors ("LWRs")—the only commercially operated type of reactor in use in the country—and non-LWR facilities, which have been tested in the country, though they have not yet been made commercially viable. New York State currently operates three LWR reactors; its fourth reactor at Indian Point was shuttered in 2022 over concerns that the plant sat on an earthquake-prone fault line, withdrawing massive amounts of water from the Hudson River. Some state Democrats, including Rep. Ritchie Torres, have expressed regret at the plant’s closure, which increased emissions by 22 percent from 2019 to 2022 and cost consumers $300 million more for their energy needs. State Republicans and Democrats alike are now seeking to host the newly announced facility in their districts. Constellation Energy, which runs the state’s three remaining nuclear facilities, has signaled its interest in partnering with NYPA to construct the new plant.
Despite this renewed interest inside Albany in pushing nuclear power, there remain some concerns, particularly surrounding the cost of the new plant. The cost of maintaining the state’s previous four existing plants ran at $500 million annually, an exorbitant amount compared to nonrenewable sources. There are likewise concerns that costs will mount during the construction and permitting phase. The nation’s most recent nuclear reactors, the only ones built in the past 30 years, Vogtle 3 and 4 in Georgia, doubled in cost and in their construction timeline, reaching $36 billion over 15 years after the bankruptcy of their contractor, Westinghouse.
Washington seems to be signaling that it will push for industry-wide deregulation that will prevent these roadblocks from arising in future nuclear plant construction. The Trump administration released four executive orders the week after Governor Hochul’s June announcement, seeking to “usher in a nuclear renaissance” by promoting both the deregulation of plant permitting processes and the bolstering of national energy supply chains. Relevant to New York in these early stages is a directive to “significantly expedite review, approval, and deployment of advanced reactors ... within two years” of approval, and to streamline environmental reviews for advanced reactor proposals. The Executive Orders also seek to “modernize” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s regulatory process to include an 18-month deadline to begin construction on new plants. With the Trump administration reducing a major regulatory hurdle that contributed to cost overruns, the new plant may be approved more quickly and avoid some of the initial cost concerns that have made nuclear plants so challenging to build. The governor’s Blueprint cited the steep costs associated with the Vogtle turbines and stated that it would work to develop appropriate supply chains, demonstration facilities, and cooperation with other states—a process that has already begun with the multi-state consortium plan. Even with reductions in the review process, however, the onus of responsibility will be on New York State to ensure that cost-overrun risks are mitigated, allowing the state to enjoy the clean energy promised by Governor Hochul.
This article was written by PECC's Energy and Climate Law Scholar Frank Mattimoe, a law student at Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. It was originally published on December 22, 2025, in Volume 1, Issue 3 of the R.E.A.C.T. by PECC Newsletter.
Editors: Mercè Martí I Exposito, Frances Gothard, Carington Lowe