Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Remarks at the Micron Celebration Program

Earlier today, Governor Hochul delivered remarks at the Micron celebration program.

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. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Syracuse, for the warm homecoming. Trump country, indeed. Sanjay, I want to ask about what I'm seeing up here. Preliminary illustration subject to change. Does that mean you're going even bigger than we're talking about here? Because we've got room, we've got capacity, we've got heart. Well, let's make room for all your suppliers and your customers as well.

So I'm so grateful to be back here, but as I'm standing on this stage at Syracuse University and we're talking about a lot about memory, I have so many memories that are just bursting from my heart and one of them was the first time as a 17-year-old arriving on this campus, leaving my blue collar life in Buffalo, heading off into this very sophisticated, nationally-recognized university, meeting students of much greater means from all over the state.

My first roommate lived on a floor in Central Park West with all kinds of celebrities, and I had never even heard of the celebrities, much less Central Park West, so I came from a very different world. But the world I lived in, the world I came from, was the same world as Upstate New York at that time. It was the same story as Syracuse and Rochester. The story of decline, the story of our greater days were in the rear view mirror. The story of what happened when so many of our businesses had left our shores and with them took our dreams and our lives and our hope for a better future.

We used to say, back then, was two things: One was the last one out, turned out the lights because it was a mass migration of people, and the saddest was our greatest export was our children, including all my siblings. I'm the only one who stayed. And I'm Irish Catholic, it was a big family. But I stuck around because I believed in the people of New York as I came here at this university, a place of new beginnings for me, literally standing on this very site because this is where the building, the probably condemned, decrepit building known as our student government offices is where I cut up my teeth in activism and I knew I had to speak truth to power whenever I could because that's what I learned as a student here at Syracuse on this very corner.

But I leave here today, I want to make sure I recognize someone who has led this university with heart and dedication for over 12 years, giving his life and his passion for higher education. So it is with a heavy heart that we also salute Kent Syverud, our Chancellor, as he heads off to head up to University of Michigan, so that's quite extraordinary. Kent, I want to applaud you for your years of service. Thank you for being my friend.

But a place for new beginnings for that 17-year-old is also a place for new beginnings for Micron and the Micron family, you've endeared yourselves to all of us. I'm looking at our friends in the front row. We cherish the relationships that you've built.

You worked so hard to build with us, and I thank you for that and working with my extraordinary team. And I want to thank people like Kevin Younis, who's from this area, who as we stood on this stage four years ago. Kevin, stand up. Stand up - a driving force for this with Hope Knight and James Katz and my team that represents our Secretary of Transportation and Secretary - I'm mixing up Washington. We have secretaries here from Washington - but also my commissioners for ESD and everything else and labor, transportation, the environment. They're my dream team and I want to always recognize them.

But I do want to recognize that we did have secretaries from the Trump administration. Thank you. And also there's something I'm going to mention right now. Chuck Schumer had a dream to make this happen, and I'm so proud as we stood here on October 4th, 2022 on this stage with President Joe Biden, who also had a belief in this vision that if we could incentivize these businesses to lean hard into the companies who could create a better future for us and create the CHIPS and the memory and lean into the artificial intelligence world, that if we could do that with support from the federal government, we could change the trajectory of this nation.

So we stepped up to the plate as well. What you heard about - not a hundred percent accurate earlier - was that this was always a $100 billion project. Today was the first time I heard it was a $50 billion project. Okay, that's all right. It's a $100 billion project. It was when Joe Biden announced it, and it is still today. But as I said, you want to expand. Let's make it even bigger.

But I also want to say this. What you have done with this investment, this $100 billion investment in 50,000 jobs, many of this work's going to be done by hardworking men and women of labor. And Greg Lancette said, I know you're not here today, but thank you. And all the working men and women of labor who are going to build this extraordinary project and make us so proud. But you have changed the psychology of an entire region because we always had this chip on our shoulder that we didn't matter. Upstate was just an afterthought. Everything was all about New York City, right? Or the rest of this country. We didn't have faith in ourselves anymore. We lost that. And by making this investment, you told us we mattered. That this is a place of extraordinary people, hardworking individuals, talented people coming out of our universities, the beautiful resources we have. This is a spectacularly beautiful part of our country.

And the energy, the abundant energy, and I'm continuing to lean hard into renewable energy. Making sure we have hydroelectric power for this, but also nuclear power for the companies of the future. So if you're thinking of where to go, I announced on Tuesday that we're going to lean into creating the capacity for more nuclear power than has been built in the United States of America in the last 30 years. It's happening here in Upstate New York. So bring us your business and we'll give you the power you need.

So to all of you who had a role in this, know that this is something I never could have imagined as that student here - never could imagined a million years that I be on a stage announcing that today we move forward into a much better, brighter future than I had facing me as I stood here and thought about what the world would be like 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now that world, Sanjay, and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. That world is forever changed. Forever changed because people believe again - we believe in ourselves. We believe in our state, and for those who say, "New York is a place that's too hard to do business." Then what are we doing here? Micron could have gone anywhere in the country. They chose New York because we believe in them and they believe in us. And forever we'll stand together with Micron. Our hard work, your workforce, our workforce - let's bring it together and let this state rise up and achieve its full potential. That has been held back far too long, and it begins here today.

And I hit my mark on the time. Exactly. Damn. I'm good. Go Bills. Go Buffalo Bills, bring it home. Bring it home on Saturday, all the way to the Super Bowl. Thank you, everyone.

Contact the Governor's Press Office