Yesterday, I attended a four-hour hearing in Peekskill about the new leaks from the Indian Point nuclear power plant. It was a great display of citizen involvement: the room overflowed with hundreds of local residents who came to express their concern about the plant.

To be clear, I believe the plant should be shut down--permanently. It has one of the worst, if not THE worst, records of any nuclear power plant in the country (and that's saying a lot). Certainly, the plant should be shut down immediately until the company can find the source of the leaks and fix the problems, at least on a temporary basis--because there is no permanent safe solution to a plant and a technology that is inherently dangerous.

What struck me is how much the community distrusts the company, Entergy, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). And both have earned that mistrust. The company cannot tell the community what the source of the leaks is--but, then, reassures the community that there is no health or safety risk. The NRC is hopelessly compromised because, for decades, it has not been a serious watchdog of the industry--in fact, it has acted far more as a cheerleader and apologist for the nuclear industry.

There is an opportunity here. Shutting down this unsafe plant AND, at the same time, campaigning for safe, energy alternatives in the state would send a powerful message throughout the nation that the end of nuclear power has arrived and our state wants to lead the way to a new way of thinking how to keep our lights on and businesses running.

I have campaigned, from the outset, on a new energy policy for our state. It is a concrete plan, not vague generalities that embrace the rhetoric of renewable energy but fail to offer specifics. We can do this now.