At a press conference on December 3rd, Riverkeeper President Alex Matthiessen joined Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Lieutenant Governor David Paterson in announcing that the State of New York and Riverkeeper have filed formal intervention papers to block Indian Point’s license extension. Standing shoulder to shoulder with Cuomo, Paterson and Matthiessen were Congresswoman Nita Lowey, Congressman John Hall, Senator Thomas Morahan, Assemblymen Richard Brodsky and Adam Bradley, Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano, and the Westchester County Board of Legislators. Congressman Eliot Engel and Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, though not present, offered their firm support. In Connecticut, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal also petitioned the NRC for a hearing on the relicensing.

Within hours of the press conference, Senator Hillary Clinton issued a strong supporting statement and Dutchess County legislator Joel Tyner introduced a resolution to back Riverkeeper and NY State’s petitions to stop Indian Point’s relicensing. Brodsky called this unprecedented broad-based coalition of elected officials and citizen activist groups calling for Indian Point’s closure “historic.” Moreover, this is the first time a state has intervened in an NRC license renewal proceeding with the intent of closing a plant.

This remarkable united front has not come about in a vacuum. Riverkeeper has spearheaded the battle to retire Indian Point for six years. Working with a strong coalition of supporters, the Close Indian Point Campaign under the leadership of Riverkeeper Policy Director Lisa Rainwater, educates elected officials and community leaders on risks associated with Indian Point, mobilizes the public to apply pressure when needed, monitors the NRC’s and Entergy’s performance and exposes their lapses, analyzes policy and research avenues, and conducts painstaking and meticulous legal research.