New York's Mayoral Election Goes Nuclear
In a new article for Heatmap, I chart the significance of a seemingly anodyne remark in favor of nuclear from New York City's Democratic candidate for Mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
New York City votes for their next mayor today and, shockingly, all three candidates say they see a role for new nuclear power in the state, even Democratic candidate and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. In the words of another democratic socialist, one who never could escape the environmental left’s hostility to nuclear, this is “yuge!”
But even though he’s been a champion of a successful campaign to “build public renewables” — led by the Public Power NY coalition between his own organization, the Democratic Socialists of America, and various environmental groups — and even though Governor Kathy Hochul, who endorsed him in the race, wants to use the New York Power Authority to build public nuclear, the otherwise pro-abundance Mamdani has been totally mum.
That is, until a debate just a week and a half before the election.
If he becomes New York City’s mayor, can Mamdani escape the gravitational pull of intensely antinuclear groups in DSA’s environmental left coalition as he steward’s the city’s power needs? What could he even do to support nuclear power, and why?
And if he does escape the gravitational pull of antinuclear environmental groups, will the industrial labor unions who recruit, represent, and organize the builders and operators of the energy system finally see more of a reason to get behind him? “Nuclear energy, being the cleanest, zero-emission, and most efficient way to produce energy, should be a no-brainer,” one New York City utilities union leader tells me.
In my debut for Heatmap today — the best climate and energy outlet out there — I tell the story. Please go check it out here.