Dive Brief:

• Entergy Corp. filed a lawsuit in federal court against the New York State Department, alleging that the state's objections to a water permit are really based on concerns over the plant's safety, which is regulated by the federal government and not New York. 
• New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has been pushing to close the Indian Point facility for several years, arguing it is not possible to safely operate a reactor so close to the nation's largest metropolitan area. Some 20 million residents live within 50 miles of the plant.
• Entergy alleges the state's concerns over its water permit are merely a cover for safety concerns, which it says fall to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and not the state of New York. The company is currently trying to relicense the two reactors at Indian Point for another 20 years.

Dive Insight:

Entergy has filed a lawsuit against the New York Department of State, pointing out what it believes are inconsistencies in how officials have handled nuclear plants.

Gov. Cuomo is pushing to close Indian Point, roughly 50 miles from New York City, while simultaneously saying the state will fight tooth and nail to block Entergy's plans to shutter it James A. FitzPatrick nuclear plant. The company wants to close that plant either this year or in early 2017, but Cuomo has said he would use "every legal and regulatory avenue" in effort to save more than 600 jobs at the facility.

When the state denied a water permit to Indian Point last year, it said the problem with the application was the cooling water it pulls in from the Hudson River. But Entergy pointed out that the FitzPatrick plant does the same thing, as do a pair of other plants in New York.

In November, the Cuomo administration told the NRC that brittle reactor vessels and fatigued metals make operating the Indian Point plant too risky. The plant has operated since the mid-1970s, and Entergy has requested to operate it another 20 years.

Unit 2's license expired in 2013 and Unit 3's expired last month. Both units will continue to operate, however, as the NRC considers a license extension that would allow the plants to continue operating out to 60 years of age.

Re-licensing exsisting plants, versus constructing new ones, has been a popular option for nuclear generators looking to preserve their low-carbon generation. But even with new authorization to operate, many plants in organized markets are handling the threat of unprofitable status and retirement due to the low natural gas prices and renewable energy.  

According to SNL Energy, Entergy filed its lawsuit last week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York. New York Secretary of State Cesar Perales was named as the defendant.