Closing Indian Point Was a Mistake. Westchester Is Still Paying for It.

Indian Point closed in 2021, since then the price of energy skyrocketed. Was it wise to shut down this plant?

Before Con Edison's rate hikes. Before the grid reliability warnings. Before natural gas became the dominant source of our electricity — there was Indian Point.

Located just 25 miles north of Midtown Manhattan in Buchanan, NY, the Indian Point Energy Center provided roughly 25% of the electricity consumed by New York City and Westchester County. It ran 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It employed 1,000 well-paying, largely unionized workers — many of them multi-generational. It generated carbon-free electricity using cheap uranium and skilled labor, and it produced over 565 terawatt hours of power in its 59-year lifetime.

In 2021, it was shut down — not because it failed, but because of a political agreement pushed by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo and a coalition of environmental activists, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

What replaced it? Natural gas. More of it. New York went from getting 39% of its electricity from natural gas in 2017 to over 50% by 2023. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and gas prices spiked globally, electricity prices in New York spiked with them — hitting nearly double the median price in a single year.

New Yorker's are now paying 60% higher than the national average for their utility bills. Was closing Indian point worth the thousands extra per year Westchester families are now paying for the same amount of energy?

The closure also cost Westchester and its surrounding communities roughly $31 million annually in property tax and PILOT revenue that had supported local schools and services. Those 1,000 union jobs? The fossil fuel plants that replaced Indian Point employ about 51 people total.

Now we're more dependent on natural gas, more exposed to price volatility, paying among the highest electricity rates in the country, and being told we need to buy EVs and electrify our homes — all while the grid that's supposed to power all of it is less reliable than it was before.

This is what happens when energy policy is driven by politics instead of common sense. As your County Legislator, I'll advocate for energy policy that prioritizes reliability and affordability — and I'll call out decisions that leave Yonkers families holding the bag.

📌 Related Reading:

• Your Con Edison Bill Is Going Up — Here's Who Let It Happen

• Westchester County Spent $45 Million on EV Chargers While Cutting Schools, Police, and Fire

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