Environmental advocates and members of the Haudenosaunee are blasting Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to develop and build a new nuclear energy power plant in upstate New York, and held a protest outside a two-day summit on nuclear energy in Syracuse this week.
Jeanne Shenandoah of the Onondaga Nation joined the group, hoping Hochul listens to the voices of those opposed to the nuclear energy plan, which she called a danger in the future.
"I just shudder to think we have no idea,” said Shenandoah. “We have absolutely no idea what our children, the future people, and the animals and the plants, what they're going to have to live with. We just don't know. It's just dangerous, and it's scary, and it needs to be stopped.”
State officials and leaders in the nuclear energy industry are meeting in Syracuse this week to look at establishing an “ecosystem” that would support nuclear power and make the state a hub for the nuclear industry. Officials say nuclear power will help the state meet its goal of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from the state’s electric grid by 2040.
“It's no better than fossil fuels,” said Hilary-Anne Coppola, a community organizer who works closely with the Onondaga Nation. “It's not a magic pill that will save us from climate collapse. It's not a magic pill that will meet all the energy demands that New York state is planning for, with new industries coming here that are going to guzzle water and guzzle electricity.”
Coppola said the choice to move ahead with nuclear energy doesn’t align with New York’s climate goals.
“We want the governor, NYSERDA, the whole state to uplift the climate law that New York state worked so hard to pass,” she said. “That means renewable energy, renewable. That's wind, that's solar, that's geothermal, that's battery storage, that's grid infrastructure updates. That's what the people want!”
David Arquette of the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne left activists with one question.
“Do we want to save our aging Nuclear plants, or save Mother Earth?” he asked. “The Haudenosaunee choose Mother Earth.”
