Opinion: Forget the CLCPA and focus on building modular nuclear plants

Recently, Gov. Kathy Hochul did something that both surprised and impressed me. Her directive for the New York Power Authority to develop a nuclear power facility loudly broke from some of the most strident voices in her own party and tacitly acknowledged that their signature climate and energy initiative, the controversial 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, isn’t going as planned.

In July, I met with officials from the New York Independent System Operator, the not-for-profit organization that manages the state’s electrical grid and administers our wholesale electricity market.

The picture they painted for me is straightforward and stark.

New York has major grid reliability issues for several reasons, one they identified as “public policy changes,” a diplomatic euphemism for the CLCPA’s stringent mandates. Facilities are aging out of power generation more quickly than they’re coming online.

Natural gas plants in desperate need of modernization are producing less power punctuated by more interruptions. On the day of this writing, intermittent, heavily subsidized renewables like wind and solar are only providing 5% of the grid’s fuel mix. And while my recent tour of Albany Nanotech’s research and development hub has me more convinced than ever of the transformational power of the semiconductor industry for our state, firms like Micron and Global Foundries are a big part of the reason why projected energy demand is soaring statewide.

Decreasing supply and exploding demand is a combination only the most militant environmentalist could embrace, a zealot so unshakeable in their principles that they don’t mind shivering during the fast-approaching winters when state energy demand peaks during our coldest months, not our hottest.

While I appreciate the governor’s willingness to pivot, she can truly unleash our state’s economic potential if she reimagines our energy sector and rebuilds our grid for a future of advanced manufacturing dominance.

New York should be racing to site modular nuclear reactors – safer, more nimble and a fraction of the cost of a massive facility. The professors I’ve spoken with from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s NuScale E2 training center are extremely confident that the technology is ready. We should be updating our grid’s infrastructure to accommodate smaller reactors in areas that have greenlit the most energy-intensive development projects, including chip fabs, data storage facilities and advanced manufacturing. And we should act quickly. Executive orders accelerating testing and licensing for nuclear power generation are not guaranteed to outlive this administration.

Currently, nearly 90% of New York City’s energy comes from fossil fuels. (Upstate’s fuel mix is nearly 90% renewable). In the future, that number must come down drastically as we improve output and transmission of reliable renewables like hydropower and nuclear. But in the very short term, we should provide state investment to repower natural gas facilities to increase output and modernize them to drastically reduce their carbon footprint. They’re an important, grid-stabilizing final bridge to the abundant, reliable, zero-emission future that advanced nuclear and hydropower will provide.

Decreasing reliability margins, increasing utility bills and intense public backlash to the important project of reducing emissions are the legacy of the CLCPA. Let’s start fresh. Let’s partner with the industries of the future and upgrade the grid so we can support them with reliable, abundant power. Let’s ensure ratepayers have access to affordable energy. Imagine a future where Micron is powered by their own microgrid running on a modular nuclear reactor. Imagine hydropower, wind and expanded nuclear energy powering millions of homes in New York City.

In this world, is it really a big deal if grandma keeps her gas stove?