Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul is a Guest on ‘Capital Tonight’ With Susan Arbetter

Earlier today, Governor Hochul was a guest on Spectrum News’ “Capital Tonight” with Susan Arbetter.

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Susan Arbetter, Capital Tonight:  Politically, this is a very bold move: A landmark first-in-the-nation moratorium. Environmental advocates had been pushing for a moratorium back in the spring. What happened that you determined that now was the time?

Governor Hochul: Now is the time because these data centers know there's a lot of pressure and public opinion has shifted, so they are literally flooding the zone with more and more applications than we ever had before. We now have 30 applications asking for resources, power, locations in the state of New York alone. So I had to put on the brakes soon, as soon as we became aware of this, and say, "I need to pause. I want to make sure that not just New York is first, but we're the first to get it right." And that's exactly what this moratorium process is going to reveal at the end of it.

Susan Arbetter, Capital Tonight: I asked somebody who works in the construction industry about this moratorium, and he responded to me with a question of his own, which I would like to pose to you. He was unhappy, and he said, "Why was this done in a way that slams the door on projects in which millions of dollars may have already been invested and where all the information has already been submitted to agencies like DEC for the required permit review?"

Governor Hochul: If there's already a permit authorized, the project goes forward. Full stop. We're not trying to stop those that are already been permitted, and some don't even require permits. There are smaller scale ones that don't require permits. But I would ask the people in the construction trades, how are you enjoying the 20 years of construction that we've brought with Micron, the largest private sector investment in American history?

I delivered that for, not just because of the trades, but also because — the benefits — but I also knew that's going to put thousands of people to work. When GlobalFoundries expands, they're going to be going to work there as well. So I'm creating a whole ecosystem upstate of supply chain business and others that are going to keep them working. But for people that just have temporary construction jobs, which I know are important, I know how important they are. They have my commitment that I'm going to continue finding more and more opportunities for them to have longer term than just two years. Micron, for example, is a 20-year construction project. That's what I'm going for. I'm going big.

Susan Arbetter, Capital Tonight: Yeah. It's important to understand that while, yes, construction jobs are very important, they are temporary, and the data centers don't create that many jobs, permanent jobs, do they?

Governor Hochul: Not at all. Not at all. And we just had a roundtable, and the Supervisor of Malta, who's very proud to be the home to GlobalFoundries, and said that they'd be announcing more construction, a thousand new jobs, and we all agree we want the limited resources, the limited energy that we have to be used for the major job creators. And it's going to come down to a choice. We don't have unlimited energy, and I do not want the cost put on the ratepayers. New Yorkers pay enough already, and if we do this in a smart way, we'll make sure that the data centers, when they do come, they'll be contributing to paying for an additional fund to help offset those costs so the cost does not go on the ratepayers. That's really important to me.

Susan Arbetter, Capital Tonight: Yeah. During the roundtable, which was was interesting with all the stakeholders, one of the stakeholders was Rob Simpson of the CenterState CEO, and he made a very interesting point that one of the benefits of having a data center, once the moratorium is over, is that the local communities might be able to plug into that computing power. Is that something that ESD is considering?

Governor Hochul: Yes, and here's why it was so important to pause. Because what we're seeing already now is that the data centers that have been approved end up being a net drain for the taxpayers in the community. They're getting tax breaks. Our hard-earned taxpayer dollars, New Yorkers' hard-earned taxpayer dollars, are giving tax breaks to these multi-billion dollar, sometimes close to trillion dollar, companies when I think they deserve to have substantial, generous community benefits.

So we're developing a community investment framework which will give a template of what communities should be asking for, helping them negotiate. Otherwise, we're asking tiny communities that barely have an economic development department, because they're small, they're supposed to be negotiating against these giants? I'm giving them the playbook. Yes, that is a very good idea to ask them to generate AI capacity for the schools in the surrounding area. I also want them to figure out ways not just to bring their own power, but can there be surplus power to go on our grid so we're actually making your presence a net positive?

In addition to some communities, and I have a whole list, $143 million for the tiny community of South Bend, Indiana. They're using this for — and across the country — investments in schools, community centers, swimming pools. That's what I'm talking about. Our communities are not getting this now, and I'm going to make sure if they want to host one of these data centers — and it is up to the community, it is up to the community to make the decision if they want it after the moratorium's over — you should make sure you're not a drain on power, that we study the impact on the water, that you deal with the noise issues, and you give back to the communities.

Susan Arbetter, Capital Tonight: ESD could require a lot of things. For example, significant investments that may include water and sewer upgrades, roads, libraries, even broadband. And this seems like a very sweet deal for communities if ESD puts all of this together. But conversely, it does seem like a very heavy lift for data centers. Is there a fear that after the moratorium, data centers might not opt to come to New York because of this heavy lift?

Governor Hochul: They're doing it already. I'd be happy to show you the list of the millions of dollars they're spending in communities right now where they have host communities, but we have to be careful. Loudoun County, Virginia has more data centers, more internet flowing through that than I think anywhere in the world. This is — and I coincidentally, I have many family, my immediate siblings moved there. It was the fastest growing county in America about 20 years ago. It was all farmland. Now, for a while, the rates were starting to go down. Now, the residents are seeing a huge spike in their utility costs.

Susan Arbetter, Capital Tonight: Why is that?

Governor Hochul: Because the benefits that were — I think it was, like, maybe a five-year pilot or so — they abated the taxes, and now they're raising the rates. And so the residents are saying, "Wait a minute. What happened? We now have a lot of our land, former farmland, dedicated to these data centers." So I want to make sure that our residents are protected. They will still come. They'll still come to New York in the right places at the right time. But they're going to give a lot more than they would have but for this pause.

Susan Arbetter, Capital Tonight: So if after the moratorium ends, data centers do want to come to New York, will you require them to be powered by something other than fossil fuels?

Governor Hochul: We want them to focus on renewable. We want them to bring their own power source or be able to pay a substantial premium into the grid. It's that — I mentioned this in my State of the State address six months ago. I said we welcome innovation. We thrive on innovation. It's part of our DNA. We're always rethinking, reinventing. So this is not hostility toward the industry at all. We welcome them. The AI uses are extraordinary, and I can talk another time about how we're using them in New York. But what I want to make sure is that we're getting it done in a right way, and that's exactly what we're talking about.

Susan Arbetter, Capital Tonight: So are you requiring them to do green energy or nuclear energy?

Governor Hochul: That is all being developed, okay. Clearly nuclear is preferred, which is why I'm trying to get approvals from Washington as soon as possible to build more nuclear in New York State than the entire country has in 30 years. That's how ambitious I am. Because if I can get surplus energy by having so much more available, I can drive down costs for New Yorkers, which is number one. We have to drive down costs for New Yorkers and our businesses, and then we'll have surplus and extra to be able to make these allocations in the right parts of our state.

[...]

Susan Arbetter, Capital Tonight: The NYISO and the independent power producers have both suggested repowering older power plants as a way to make those power plants cleaner and to fill that gap between now, when we need more energy, and the time the possible nuclear, the modular nuclear, will be up and running. Is that something that you will be pushing the Legislature to look at?

Governor Hochul: We need to have an all-of-the-above approach, without a doubt. We are perilously close — last year during the heat wave and even this year during the heat wave — to having the lights go out in parts of New York. That cannot happen. That cannot happen. And I will say the decision to shut down Indian Point, which provided 20, 25 percent of the power for New York City, nuclear power, clean energy, when that was shut down without a plan B, the alternatives were to bring in fossil fuel-generated power. And that's why if you look at a map of New York State, you'll see the emissions are heavily concentrated downstate. It is terrible, and it's not just —

Susan Arbetter, Capital Tonight: And it’s cleaner upstate.

Governor Hochul: Much cleaner because we have nuclear and we have hydro. I'm bringing hydro to New York City, just opened that line. There's some kinks in that, and we have to get those fixed, but that power was never there before. I've been aggressive for the last five years in finding new energy sources. Offshore wind — Empire Wind alone powering half a million homes in Brooklyn, the Trump administration shuts it down. I get it turned back on. They shut down all of our wind projects, go to court to get it turned around — why are we facing such obstacles? Because I'm fighting the efforts by the administration to kill all of our renewable energy projects, and all they want us to do is literally oil, gas, and coal. They're asking us to use coal now. This is part of their energy strategy. I am not taking this state back to the early 1900s, the 1800s. We have to be smart, resist those forces, fight back and put New Yorkers first.

Susan Arbetter, Capital Tonight: Is one of the reasons you're doing this to protect large job creators like Micron?

Governor Hochul: Absolutely. Yes, they came here because I could offer them more affordable hydroelectric power. We have plentiful water Upstate New York. And to have 50,000 direct and indirect jobs, this is transformational for upstate, and we're now attracting other businesses that want to be part of our ecosystem that never would've considered New York before I was able to land this four years ago.

This is something I'm proud of. I'm going to protect it, and there are more Microns looking to come here. But I want to make sure at the end of the day we're putting New Yorkers first. That if a company is successful, we want them to be, New Yorkers should share in that success, and no one should be able to build their future on the backs of New Yorkers or ask them to compromise theirs.

So I have to put New Yorkers first. But we have plenty of capacity to embrace the innovation, the new technologies, take advantage of them, find a path forward with data centers, and I'm even asking questions to the industry. I posed this yesterday: Can all of you, the brilliant minds that created a technology that is literally changing civilization as we know it, everything we do, how we live our lives, where we work, how we communicate – don't you have the capacity to use AI to devise smaller facilities that are quieter, that consume less energy, less water? Take that back to AI and ask that question because it's very much on my mind. I believe they can do better.