Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Remarks at the Launch Celebration of the Champlain Hudson Power Express

Earlier today, Governor Hochul delivered remarks to celebrate the launch of the Champlain Hudson Power Express that will deliver needed clean hydroelectric power to New York City from Quebec.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

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

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

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

Thank you Jon, and to all of the participants who are here today. Welcome to New York City, a city where you can never, ever stop believing. You can't stop believing when the Knicks are down 29 points, and you can't stop believing when a project like this that deserves to happen takes a few years longer than anybody expected. So to all the true believers here today, this is what it's all about, to never give up. And I've believed in this project since I first heard about it as Lieutenant Governor. I was the one who was told to go meet with those people from Quebec who had some crazy idea, and I did. They had me at hello.

I believed in this project and literally kept an eye on it and wondering why it wasn't moving forward. So I was Governor for literally three months, and this got approved by the PSC because I said, "Let's get this done." So I am proud to be able to drive this ambition, the boldness that defines this great city and why we have such magnificent facilities. But if we don't power them, if the lights go out, then we have nothing.

So this is one of my top priorities - to focus on renewable energy, clean, beautiful, renewable energy coming down from a place in the world I love, and that is Canada, and particularly - I live across the water from Ontario, but I also am a big fan of Quebec. And this is how you make magic happen. So I also want to thank the Chief, Sky-Deer, who I've heard her speak before as we were up in Whitehall at one of the symbolic events, and her words are so touching. So take to heart her conveyance of our responsibility as stewards of this beautiful planet, our responsibility to other generations, future generations, and why clean power like this upholds that sense of responsibility. And to Jon Gray and everyone at Blackstone, thank you for helping make this happen. It's extraordinary achievement, extraordinary achievement. And everyone who's part of TDI and Hydro-Québec and all our other partners in government, thank you for never giving up.

I, just this afternoon, I stopped over at the site. Little dusty over there, but I went over to Astoria, Queens because I needed to see firsthand what this was all about and to thank the men and women of labor who made this happen. Let's give them another round of applause because they worked through tough conditions day and night. They were unrelenting in their pursuit to get this done.

So when you look at this achievement, I believe it is the longest, longest transmission line underground in North America. So we like - this is typical New York. We want to be the best, the boldest, the longest, the fastest and the champions. So this is part of us being champions. What an extraordinary week for all of us, and I look forward to many more projects like this, but realizing that there are now one million households in the city of New York that know they're getting clean, reliable power from an incredible source that was not there up until this time.

So this is the month all the magic has happened. So this will go down in history as another landmark, a hallmark in our story of making New York even greater because we need the power to have the power, and that is the story of New York. Thank you very much, everyone.