Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul directed the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to develop and construct a zero-emission advanced nuclear power plant in Upstate New York to support a reliable and affordable electric grid, while providing the necessary zero-emission electricity to achieve a clean energy economy. This builds on other opportunities announced in Governor Hochul’s 2025 State of the State to catalyze nuclear energy development in New York.
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:
Good morning, good morning, good morning. What a spectacular venue. This is actually the coolest spot in New York City — other than New York City and the rest of the state, the New York State. So anybody who's going to complain about the heat just drive another hour, you'll be grateful that you come from Western New York. But there's no better place to talk about New York's energy future than right here at the Niagara Power Plant.
I've been here so many times, the visitor center is spectacular. I've brought children and guests from all over there and to really just absorb the knowledge that this great creation of humanity, this engineering feat that still holds people in awe is something to be celebrated here in Western New York. And it's built by our great partners here. This hydroelectric partner was the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world when it opened in 1961 and remains the greatest provider of clean energy in our state today.
President Kennedy called it an example to the world of North American efficiency and determination. I think he's right about that. It's that same kind of determination and belief in the sometimes impossible ideas that brings us here today. And I want to acknowledge Justin Driscoll for his embrace of what I am putting on his shoulders in addition to everything else he does. Great, great leader I want to give him a round of applause. Justin Driscoll.
Jim Slevin, you'll be hearing him from the president of Utility Workers. Jim represents people all across the State of New York who will be trained and ready to step into these clean energy jobs. And I want to thank him for his representation of New York State's great unions. Jim, please stand up.
Randy Wolken, the President and CEO of the Manufacturers Association, I've known Randy a long time. He loves to build and we are going to be doing some extraordinary building Randy, you’ll be hearing from Randy shortly as well. Doreen Harris, let's give her a huge round applause. One of our great visionaries, a national visionary when it comes to charting an energy future. The President and CEO of NYSERDA.
Jess Waldorf, the Chief of Staff for the Department of Public Services is here as well. John Koelmel, someone I've known for decades. Our Chairman of NYPA, the entire board, and I want to thank all the board members who are here as well. And all my partners in government, Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, has joined us. She’s on our way down.
Also Minority Leader Robert Ortt has joined us as well as many other electeds from the state and local governments. But Labor IBW, utility workers, carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, pipefitters and building trades are here. Let's give all of them a round of applause. Now for generations, Upstate New York was the beating heart of American innovation.
We made typewriters at Smith Corona, automobiles at Franklin, penicillin at Bristol Myers. We invented the products that powered the 20th century, but those of you who are a little bit older know the sad story of when companies began shifting jobs overseas in the seventies. Factories closed main streets from Niagara Falls down to my home turf of Hamburg, New York.
We lost the manufacturing base that had once made us so great and it was hard working families across Upstate were left wondering, what is our future? Do we even stay? I was raised in a family of six kids, I'm the only one who could stay because I could find a job. The rest wanted to stay but couldn't.
So as you know, my dad and grandpa worked at the steel plant. That steel plant now has turbines, wind turbines, generating clean energy. So you show how we're transitioning, but we have to make sure that we take care of the families of today and tomorrow, with a forward thinking approach to government, and what are the areas we can unlock to ensure affordability and livability here in our state.
And also just the belief in what's possible — that was shaken for a long time. But today, a whole new chapter is being written while past administrations have tried to soften the blow of Upstate's economic decline. I'm championing its return and leaning hard into it. And what we're doing is attracting the world's most cutting edge companies — the ones that you hear about globally — and creating thousands of new families sustaining jobs.
Now they want to be here, they're coming, but our challenge now is to give them the power to prosper. That's what we can do in government and help sustain that growth and build the homes. You've heard me talk about it — we need to build more housing. People want to live here. It's real simple friends: you build more housing. There's more supply, the prices go down where people can afford it.
That's what we're trying to accomplish here in New York, and more businesses and the opportunities that come with it. Because the industries of the future — advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence. Look what we're doing with Empire AI at the University of Buffalo.
The country is talking about this, semiconductor manufacturing. But you know what? They don't run on dreams — they need to be powered, they need a lot of electricity. So if we don't increase New York's electricity supply in a major way, we're going to risk losing our opportunities. They can go elsewhere, but we want them here.
And that's why this announcement is also so important. We cannot risk jeopardizing the pro-business climate that I have worked so hard to create for the last few years. We also have to make sure we don't keep having costs in New York driven up. I'm not talking about some far off future. That future is right now, that demand is right now and the opportunity is right now.
But if we don't increase our capacity over the next decade, we will see rolling blackouts and other disruptions. You see them in other states. We must radically increase supply starting now, and do it in a way that does not threaten our commitment to clean air and a clean environment, and ensure that New York remains a leader in the global fight against climate change. We're capable of doing all of this.
Now, some people say you can't clean the grid and grow it at the same time. Sounds like defeatism to me. This is New York. That's not how we think. We don't back down from the hard problems, we solve them and we build bigger and bolder than anyone could have imagined. We're already scaling up wind and solar, thermal, emerging clean technologies. I embrace all of them.
And all of us from Western New York — you cannot grow up in this area and not be a hardcore environmentalist. We're not far from Love Canal. The world was watching Love Canal when I was growing up, and the genesis of the Superfund saying companies have a responsibility to clean up what they're doing. Same thing when I used to watch Bethlehem Steel in Lackawanna. Anybody from that area? We thought the sky was supposed to be orange. We didn't know we were supposed to have blue skies. It's all we saw. You couldn't see coming over the Father Baker Bridge, it was a cloud of orange smoke every day. And we watched them drop, every night, gallons and gallons of this substance that I knew was toxic, but no one told us not to swim in it by day. I believe in fighting for our environment: clean air, clean water, a renewable future.
And just last week I met some partners in government from Canada. Actually, there's still some talking to us, it was great. I met representatives from Quebec to talk about the timetable for completing the Champlain Hudson Power Express. Now, what is that? We call it CHPE. It's an underground transmission line that'll carry hydroelectric power almost 340 miles from Quebec to power homes in New York City.
It's one of the first things I did as Governor. This had been talked about for a long time, and nobody got it done. And I said, “The time is now. We can partner with them to power homes all the way as far as from Quebec down to New York City.” It'll power a million homes with clean energy and reduce harmful emissions by 37 million metric tons.
Now, I'm glad to see this coming along. That's just one part of the strategy. Just one part. You heard the story of how I had to negotiate pretty intensely with the White House to bring back on one of our nation's largest offshore wind facilities. It was 10 years in the making. It had a year-and-a-half to go and there was a stop work order placed on it back in March — cost this company $50 million a week. I'm telling you, the CEO out of Norway said they were out of here. Any company would have to do that. And I said, “Give me another week. Just give me one more week. Let me try to persuade the administration.” And we were successful — 1,500 jobs, half a million homes powered in Brooklyn with clean renewable energy from offshore wind. We got that done as well. And now that's back on track. I'm so excited about that.
But it shouldn't be this hard. It shouldn't be this hard. But no matter how hard we fight for renewables, solar works when the sun is shining, wind turbines spin when the air is moving. We need electricity that's reliable all day long, regardless of the weather outdoors. And that's what we're talking about, something that's fully reliable, emissions free built to scale, especially when the AI data centers and semiconductor fabs and all the homes will need power 24/7. Take Micron, for example, a global semiconductor facility coming to Upstate New York.
Now, there's a whole story behind this as well. They would say that it was my tenacity that kept them from going to another state. I would not take no for an answer. We won them over 50,000 jobs — good-paying jobs, the vast majority union workers. It's going to be extraordinary, the supply chain opportunities that are going to come here all over the state.
But to power this one facility, Micron is going to need so much power — so much incredible power — and there's only one commercially viable option that can deliver that much clean, renewable, reliable power, and that's what's been operating in New York for decades, nuclear energy. Harnessing the power of the atom is the best way to generate steady zero-emission electricity, and to help this transition, which we want to have this transition from fossil fuels. I'm committed to it. You've heard all the projects, I'm working on putting the weight of my office behind it. But that's why today, seeing everything that's happening on the landscape looking into the future.
I am proud to announce that I'm directing the New York State Power Authority to develop and construct a brand new advanced nuclear plant in Upstate New York. Announcing that here today, and we're going to get it done.
This historic initiative will lay the foundation for the next generation of prosperity, just like this facility did. Just like this one did. And it can also prove what government is supposed to do — build infrastructure that underpins economic growth and security.
Now, a new nuclear plant is a major undertaking, but NYPA is uniquely qualified to lead it. We talked about — as created by FDR — NYPA's always stepped in at a time of need. In 1957, the Schoellkopf Power Station collapsed into the Niagara River. You need to see the photos. And that was an emergency — an environmental emergency — but also an energy, electricity, reliability, emergency. NYPA quickly mobilized 1,200 workers — 1,200 workers to rebuild that plant. Four years later, it was up and running.
We've also had a crisis — 1975 — amid a global crisis. Con Edison sold Indian Point to NYPA, and they operated that plant reliably for 25 years. We got them done. Pataki did it, got some done. But most recently I talked about NYPA, about what we can do to accelerate the building of more plants, and they delivered me a plan within a few months. Time and time again, NYPA delivers and their workers are extraordinary.
We're already identifying potential host communities across Upstate New York. And let me tell you, only receptive, welcoming communities will be considered. And there's a lot of them. There's a lot of them because the communities that already host them know these are good-paying, long-term jobs, and the benefits of the community are also extraordinary.
So everybody's raising their hand right now. It's going to be hard to decide. But unlike what you would've thought years ago, when there was a fear, a legitimate fear of nuclear — I grew up with that as well in the environment — everyone was talking about that. But we'll create 1,600 jobs during construction and 1,200 good-paying, permanent jobs as a result. How does that sound to you? With one facility? That's just one facility.
So to power New York's future, we need three things: reliability, affordability, and sustainability. And nuclear drives all three. Now you'll hear the term base load from a lot of people at NYPA. It's just the minimum amount of power that you need always on, no matter what. It doesn't fluctuate with the weather or the time of day.
Now, if you take nuclear off the table, the only way to do that is more fossil fuels. That's not going to work for us here in New York. We're not going backwards. We're going forward. In the last couple years, we've shut down more than two gigawatts of fossil fuel capacity.
That's why it makes New York's electric grid one the cleanest in the country per capita. But you don't get cleaner air or lower asthma rates for kids by burning fossil fuels. You get there by using more clean power and nuclear is today's answer to that. So look how far we've come.
Why are people like Bill Gates investing in advanced reactors? Why is Microsoft bringing Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania back online to power its cloud computing and AI services? Why are companies like Google and Amazon supporting nuclear capacity around the world? My friends, it's coming and it's back. And if we don't jump on or lead this, they're going to pass us by. These companies will go elsewhere, and I don't want that to happen.
I want to grow our tax base. I want to make New York more affordable. I want good-paying jobs for New Yorkers, and we know this is the best technology to meet this growing demand. One gigawatt, one gigawatt of nuclear. What does that do? It powers a million homes without adding any carbon to the atmosphere and without breaking the bank for consumers. Nuclear power is completely insulated from oil and gas prices. Look what's happening in the Middle East. Imagine a country — imagine a state — that can read that in the news and not worry about the effect on costs going up on the grid or in the utility bills that our hardworking families pay. So no matter what happens in the Middle East, Russia or Venezuela, the cost of operating nuclear won't change. That's the beauty of this as well.
We know that because we have three plants already operating up on Lake Ontario now. When there was fear of losing those jobs, the community was terrified. We had to fight back to save 600 jobs. They've been operating successfully, safely since 1969. The oldest is still functioning right there, and thanks to these, we can generate all this power here. Upstate New York, it's 90 percent of its electricity from clean sources because of what's going on here and those nuclear facilities, but we need to scale it up fast.
So here's the deal, we'll be looking for private partners. Anybody got a lot of money out there? All right, raise your hand if you do. We want to help finance the plant and buy the power it generates. So I'm directing the Department of Public Service to work hand in hand with NYPA to ensure this is done with upfront. The number one focus has to be the ratepayers.
Ratepayers must know that there's going to be reliability, no cost escalation and they'll be able to see into the future what their bills will look like. And we'll make sure this plant keeps the lights on without making it too expensive. So while we're tackling this, leading the transition truly for the nation. I mean, what we do here in New York — the country's watching us, and maybe they're a little surprised and it's unexpected.
But we are bold here. We are not daunted by any challenge. We never hesitate. And you wouldn't have this facility if we weren't bold, audacious — people are willing to try anything. The bigger the better. The bigger the better. And we cannot do this alone. And we're looking forward to partnering with others who've gone before.
Just last week, I sat down with the Premier of Ontario, Tom Ford — had a great conversation about creating a memorandum of understanding because they are taking the lead on small modular reactors; they're building four right now. They'll be underway in 18 months. This is the speed that they're able to accomplish.
So, they're going to work with us, work with the Tennessee Valley Authority. There's people out there that we're going to draw knowledge, technology and expertise from because when we share this expertise, we can deliver clean energy for more households.
And I'm also committed to working with the White House to accelerate this project. I've had some very frank, interesting conversations with the President — all kinds of topics, but every single one of them, I've brought it back to nuclear. So, Mr. President, I need your help. There's a reason people don't embrace nuclear energy — a lot of reasons. One of them: it just takes too long, and the barriers are in Washington. The length of time — 10 years, a decade — of regulatory bureaucracy and red tape that must be gotten through is a reason why it fails and people don't even try. So I said, “Mr. President, if you want energy dominance, I want energy dominance, this is how we do it.” So with their financial planning and hopeful support, we can move as fast as possible, both affordably and safely.
And I said — this is when Elon Musk was still wandering around the White House — I said, “Have Elon Musk and all the ‘DOGE guys’ go over to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Do you want to find efficiencies? Leave Veterans Administration alone, leave all these other — leave the people who are keeping an eye on our nuclear stockpile; don't be firing them, go help make this operation more efficient. That's how we'll get something done.”
And my last point is safety. I know there's going to be critics, there already are critics of nuclear. I understand that to my — I was going to say to my core — my being. Those arguments went out when we shut down Indian Point; I understood — 26 miles from a major population area; lot of anxiety, I understand it. But, let's be honest, in doing that. We turned off one quarter of New York City's power and it was almost all clean energy. And overnight, without an alternative, we've had to burn more fuels, more fossil fuels have been burned. Greenhouse emissions are up in Downstate New York because of that. There just wasn't a Plan B. I understand it, but there was not a Plan B, so more air pollution Downstate.
We cannot have trade-offs like that. And this is not your grandparents' nuclear reactor. You're not going to see this in a movie starring Jane Fonda — only the early old people caught that — and I wouldn't want that. I don't want to live in a world where people are afraid. But look what's happening, as I said at Three Mile Island. The eyes of the world are watching that place, and now it's going to be a place of jobs and innovation. So the new plan will be a model of 21st century nuclear design with safety at the forefront, automatic safety systems to enhance the containment, and rigorous environmental standards will be met — they truly will.
So — coming to the end here, folks, I know it's a little hot — I'm the first Democratic Governor in a generation to say to nuclear, “I'm embracing this.” My State will embrace this. I want to show this nation that blue states like New York can dream big and build big because we believe in the philosophy abundance. There's a lot of books, and podcasts and conversations about abundance — that's what we do every single day. We find ways where government can drive growth instead of delaying it. And as I've said from the very beginning, we need a government that's on your side, not on your back — there's a big difference. That's how we accomplish great things in partnership with the private sector.
Ideas are easy, but building is hard. But since when do New Yorkers shy away from a challenge — it's just not in our DNA. I'm committed to expanding, not curtailing, New York's carbon free energy capacity, and that means building without fear starting right now. And with this new plant — just like those who are the visionaries, back to FDR, and John Kennedy and others who kept building this facility — we're doing this for our kids, and our grandkids and for generations to come because no matter what technologies define our future, if we want to continue to be an economic powerhouse for the nation and the world, we need reliable power.
And once again, as always, New York will lead the way. Thank you very much.