Westchester County executive sues to stop Indian Point closure

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino announced Tuesday that he filed two lawsuits to block the proposed closure of the Indian Point nuclear power facility after he failed to get county legislators on board.
Astorino says he is suing Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Entergy and Riverkeeper because they made a deal to close the plant in Buchanan without conducting an environmental review.
The county executive says he questions whether sufficient energy will be available to replace 2,000 megawatts of electricity and if failing to comply with the State Environmental Quality Review Act puts people’s safety in jeopardy.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in January that an agreement was in place to take the plant completely offline by 2021.
Buchanan village officials say they are concerned over what the closure will mean for its tax base, particularly regarding school funding.
Astorino hopes his plan will invalidate a deal until a review is done.
The lawyers handling this lawsuit expect to go before a judge in two to three months.