Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Is a Guest on WAMC’s Midday Magazine

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on WAMC's Midday Magazine.

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

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

David Guistina, WAMC: Joining us now to talk about the first-in-the-nation one-year moratorium on the construction of hyperscale data centers is none other than New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Governor, I know you've been traveling the state talking to stakeholders surrounding this issue, so thank you for taking the time to speak with Public Radio listeners today.

Governor Hochul: Very happy to because there's a lot of questions about what we're doing, and anytime I can take my message directly to the people of this great State of New York and they understand what I'm doing there's a greater understanding and appreciation for the leadership we're showing here in New York.

David Guistina, WAMC: To that end, what convinced you a statewide moratorium on data centers was necessary?

Governor Hochul: Right now, the companies are literally flooding the zone. What am I talking about? Hundreds of applications are going in all across the country, and right here in New York, there's 30 applications for these hyperscale massive data centers. And take one county like St. Lawrence - I've been there many times, it's a beautiful county - there are applications for five data centers. And I did a quick analysis that if we allow this to go forward with all five, the amount of power that they would consume would exceed what I could generate with one nuclear reactor.

I'm trying really hard to bring more power to our entire state, but particularly Upstate right now, because the more power I can generate, the prices will come down, and therefore, utility rates will stop skyrocketing and start heading down. I've put all this effort in trying to get this achieved, and then it'll be all offset by the consumption of these huge data centers. Now, if it's a Micron that's creating 50,000 jobs that I recruited to New York, which is going to change Upstate New York's, really, economic future, I will look at that as a better investment. But to use that power, which again is limited right now, for a data center, which will have, yes, construction jobs for a couple of years, but then basically not be having any large scale employment.

So that's the equation I want to look at. But the moratorium is not a ban. It is simply stepping back and saying, "I want New York not just to be the first, but the first to get it right." And getting it right means that we're going to set up a system where power - these data centers have to either bring their own power source or they have to pay an additional premium in the grid. So our ratepayers in New York are not hurt by this, which is the case right now. Secondly, I want to make sure that our communities are benefiting. So you think about the small communities that I was proud to represent, one of the most rural areas of the state in Congress. I know those communities very well. They don't have the resources in their economic development or IDA offices to be able to negotiate against these huge companies, they just don't.

And so if I can give them a template, a framework of what they should be asking for community investments, then that gives them more leverage to say, "Yes, I want $100 million in direct money like they re-received in South Bend," for example. I want to make sure that we're getting a community center built, or pools built or having the entire region have a reduction in their utility rates because we'll subsidize. So I'm just saying, let's look at the energy consumption, bring your own power, tell the communities what they should be asking for and no more tax breaks.

I don't think that our hardworking New Yorkers should be having to subsidize these companies that are making a wild profit while taking up our land, our water, resources and energy. That's really what's behind it. It's one year where we have a chance to put this all together, and at the end of it, it'll be up to the individual communities of whether they want to go forward or not. It is their choice.

David Guistina, WAMC: New York Governor Kathy Hochul. New York Governor, how do you respond to companies that say New York is closing the door on a fast-growing industry, that we're going to lose out if we hold off for a year to states surrounding us and other states in the country?

Governor Hochul: I think they're wrong. If you look at the letter to the editor I wrote to The Wall Street Journal a few days ago, if you want to post that and talk about my vision for the state, which is very much based in innovation and embracing technology. And I have embraced AI more than any Governor in this country because I'm actually using it to go through every single rule, policy, regulation, fee in the State of New York since the beginning of our state's formation, and I have already used AI to find a path to reduce costs and save money for residents of this state.

I also created Empire AI, which if you have a chance to examine that, it's a fascinating collaboration for our universities and supported by the state and the private sector to build the nation's largest supercomputer dedicated to artificial intelligence for public good. Literally, it is being built and used right now, and we're looking for new therapies to treat cancer, how to track weather systems that are devastating for our farmers and our communities with flooding and countless ways I'm using AI. So we are open to innovation. More technology companies continue to come here. So simply saying that we have a smart policy on these massive data centers does not say that we are hostile to business development, new companies coming, or certainly not innovation. It's who we are as New Yorkers.

David Guistina, WAMC: A couple of more questions for you, Governor Hochul, with us talking about data centers and the moratorium in New York. You mentioned The Wall Street Journal editorial. You've also had some Republicans criticizing you for this, and yet I've heard you say particularly on Long Island, this is not a political issue.

Governor Hochul: Oh, absolutely not. I don't do what I do based on polls, but I noticed that there was a national poll that showed 71 percent of all Americans, that's all political persuasions, are not embracing this because of the fear and all the anxiety around the issues I raised. And I was on Long Island, and I took note of the fact that one of the largest towns on Long Island, Brookhaven, a Republican town, just enacted an 18-month moratorium. So those who brush this off and say it's influenced by the socialists, they should know I'm still an Upstate moderate Democrat. I don't get persuaded by those arguments.

I'm just saying I'm doing what I believe is best for our state. And we will be the envy of other states when we come up with the most well-thought-out plan in a year that puts us in a position of strength, makes my small communities be able to have a negotiating power that they don't have right now. And I cannot allow our natural resources, particularly energy, to be depleted by large entities that are not creating jobs.

David Guistina, WAMC: So, then, what about after the moratorium, Governor? What does success look like, for example, a year from now? I heard you talking about something called the Grid Resilience Fund.

Governor Hochul: That is also an element of what we are devising over the next year. And what I want these companies to do - if they are welcome in a certain community, that community will hopefully negotiate along the lines. We're going to give them better assets and direct money and all kinds of support. But also, I say they have an obligation to help us look forward, to make sure that our grid has the investments that have not been made.

The energy grid is very expensive because the investments were not made to make transmission more efficient and more reliable - and those are my goals for this. I want to have not just plentiful energy, but I can't have it go down during a major storm or a major heat wave. So they will contribute, also, to a major fund called our grid - this statewide fund, which we'll use to deploy to build up the infrastructure where right now it is not.

And that's why I feel strongly about this. I spent a lot of my energy thinking about energy. It's important for a Governor not just to deal with the day-to-day challenges, but also be forward-thinking so I can position our state into one where we are competitive. We can be the place that businesses wanna come because there'll be no worry about the lights ever going out or utility rates being too high.

David Guistina, WAMC: Governor, I'm curious, do you use AI personally? Does the office use it?

Governor Hochul: Like I said, I did something that no other state has done. I just completed an initiative I launched just a short time ago where I took every aspect of state government - every rule, policy, regulation commissions, boards, fees - and put it through, in a very simple way of saying it, sort of the AI grinder here, and analyzed it and have thousands and thousands of recommendations on where areas are redundant, they're obsolete, they're outdated, just too burdensome, how we can make government more efficient and more responsive to what the people want, as well as asking for recommendations from the public.

I have 4,000 recommendations from businesses and individuals on how to cut red tape, how to cut the fat out of government. So I'm literally using AI to rethink state government and be able to focus on putting money back in people's pockets.

My first recommendations that we announced about a month ago found all kinds of inanities, like you have to pay $25 to take your dog hunting with you under certain circumstances. The fact that pregnant women have to have a special permit to be able to work after midnight. You still have to send messages by telegraph in some areas. So it was inane.

David Guistina, WAMC: Wow.

Governor Hochul: But I also found a way to save a million hours and millions of dollars with just my first 50. So I'm just getting started.

David Guistina, WAMC: Well, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, I saw that the Trump administration has now admitted that grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics. I just wanted to get your reaction because obviously New York is one of those states. What do you make of that?

Governor Hochul: It's disgusting. It's shameful. How do you stop money that was already approved to go to help us build up a strong clean energy future, and you just pull the plug on us? Now we've had to - I've had to talk to the President many times about our offshore wind initiatives and what we're doing with hydroelectric power and what we're doing with our nuclear initiatives.

I'm trying so hard to make sure that New York is better positioned for the future, and I've got to fight the Trump Administration, who's not stopping these projects in red states and Republican states, but only in Democratic states. So these are the headwinds we're up against. It is a shameful abuse of power, the likes of which we've never seen before.

But as Governor, I have to stand up, fight back and protect my residents.

David Guistina, WAMC: Are you concerned about reaching the climate goals for the state as a result of a lot of these problems with energy, not only on the state level but the federal level that we just talked about?

Governor Hochul: That's why we had to make changes to change the timetable during which we would meet these goals, because you could not have foreseen - back when these were written in 2018 - that you'd have an administration in Washington that literally pulled the plug on tax credits for solar and onshore wind.

And then to kill projects, like Empire Wind was scheduled to open soon, and we have it back on, but there were many months where the head of the company said, "We're not going to be able to continue." That's half a million homes in one part of our state to be powered by that. So we're heading - we have a lot of challenges that were not there before.

So we now have more time. I expect to meet every goal that I agreed to, otherwise I would not have agreed to it. But they are more realistic in light of this climate right now that has been thrust upon us with this administration that just doesn't care. They only want us to go back to coal, and they have told me that.

They literally have said, "You should be using coal." So I'm not going back to the 1800s with my state, our state. I'm going to power us into the clean energy future as well as keeping an eye and making sure that we continue doing everything we can to drive down costs.

As we've seen the reports out today, that the cost of living, everything, the groceries, gas, it's the highest it's been in 50 years - 50 years. So people are suffering. They're absolutely suffering. And so much of this is inflicted by this administration with the tariffs and with inflation that he promised would be gone on day one. And now this war with Iran, which is costing an obscene amount of money, as well as keeping the high cost of gasoline up.

And I talk to farmers. Diesel on the farm is everything. The cost of that just makes their head shake. They cannot understand how they're supposed to - with markets closing off to them because of the tariffs. The Canadian relationships we had are just so fractured right now, understandably. They're so upset with how our foreign policy has been conducted toward our best friend, the Canadians.

They've stopped coming over. They're not spending in our charming Upstate tourist communities. I'm heading up very shortly to Lake Placid and over to Saranac and up to further north. And people just can't understand why this happened to them. I've had to put $30 million in a fund to help relieve the cost of tariffs for our farmers because farmers are everything.

Agriculture is the heart and soul of our economy, and I can't have our farmers go under because of the tariffs inflicted by the President. I could go on and on forever, as you can tell, David, because I just feel so bad for our residents. They didn't ask for this. They're doing everything they're asked to do. They're working hard. They just can't get ahead, and I'm there to help them understand that I'll always make their family my fight.

I'm doing everything in my power to tell them, "We'll get through this. We're going to focus on building more housing." Because in the North Country, when I read that the average length of a commute for someone in many of our communities up north is 90 minutes to get to a job, and many of these are just entry-level jobs at hotels and restaurants and really supporting our critical tourism industry.

That's because no one has the guts to build more housing in areas, and I'm building more housing. I'm the person who's willing to break down the barriers, change the laws as I just did to reduce the two-year timeframe to comply with state laws. I'm going at all this, David. The energy costs, housing costs, childcare costs, and just trying to do anything I can to help relieve the enormous pain that everyone across the country is feeling right now.

David Guistina, WAMC: Yeah. And on a lighter note [...]The Olympics. You want the Olympics.

Governor Hochul: Oh. That's why I'm coming up to the North Country. I want to go look at our sites again, and I'm so excited about this. I really think that our bid will be well-positioned when we create the synergy between some of the events being in New York City - which can handle lots of visitors and certainly has the hotels and everything - but then also keep the traditional events that we love in the North Country.

And I have been bragging about our order facilities, telling everyone we've been investing $750 million over the last few years to make sure they are top-notch for our sledding events and our skiing events. So I'm literally heading up there shortly to talk about the great potential I have, and I'm building a team of people - lawyers and consultants and funders - to position us to make the best bid possible. So, yes, I am all about the Olympics.

David Guistina, WAMC: New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Thank you so much for taking the time and letting me push the time limit a little bit. I know our listeners will really appreciate hearing from you.

Governor Hochul: All right.

David Guistina, WAMC: So thanks again. I hope you'll come back.

Governor Hochul: We sure will, David. Thank you. Bye-bye.

David Guistina, WAMC: Bye.