GOP Rep. Mike Lawler eyes nuclear power plant to tackle NY’s sky-high electricity costs in clear split from Dem rival

Indian Point closed in 2021 because Andrew Cuomo and the green lobby decided a fully operational nuclear plant that supplied a quarter of New York City's electricity was somehow more dangerous than the alternative. That alternative turned out to be higher bills, more reliance on fossil fuel peaker plants, and a grid that's noticeably tighter every summer. Mike Lawler looking at that outcome and saying "maybe we undo this" isn't some radical position. It's just noticing that the math never worked.

What's telling is Cait Conley's answer. Keep it shut. No real alternative, just a preference for the status quo that got New Yorkers here in the first place. That's the choice voters in the Hudson Valley are actually being handed: a guy proposing to bring back cheap, reliable, carbon-free power generation, versus someone defending a decision whose main legacy is higher electric bills and dirtier backup generation filling the gap.

Nuclear power is the one clean energy source that doesn't depend on the wind blowing or subsidies flowing forever, and even plenty of Democrats elsewhere are coming around to that now that reality has set in. Lawler is just getting there faster in a district that's paying the price directly. If Conley wants to run on keeping Indian Point dark, she should have to explain what replaces it and who eats the cost difference. So far, nobody's heard an answer.