Governor Hochul a Guest on Newschannel 9

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on NewsChannel 9 With Andrew Donovan.

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

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

Governor Hochul: It's a matter of necessity. We have so many opportunities here in New York under my administration, we've been aggressively trying to recruit more companies to come here. I only need to say one word in Micron, and everyone in Central New York — actually across the state — knows the significance of that. But there's also a lot of supply chain companies that are coming as a result of that — Micron deciding to come to Central New York. And artificial intelligence, we have Empire AI, a huge supercomputer being built in Buffalo that'll power researchers and universities all across the state, including SU. So there's so much opportunity and our failure to lead this moment would have decades of consequences because these companies will go to other states.

They want to know that they have reliable, affordable power. And not just these companies. This is for everyday New Yorkers. This is about making sure that we don't have brownouts and shortages of power for your very home — especially when you look at the heat wave we're having right now. And so this is about making sure we have enough supply, diversifying, making the bold investments, making a tough decision, which others have not made in decades and decades, and I'm willing to do that. And there's a lot of support from New Yorkers as well as businesses and the labor community that's excited about the jobs that'll be associated with this.

Andrew Donovan, NewsChannel 9: How do you calm the fears of people who want nothing like this near them, knowing the history of meltdowns and some of the waste left behind?

Governor Hochul: I understand the concern. I truly do. I grew up at a time when there was a lot of influences back in the early 1970s when this was a fairly new industry in our country, although it's been in Europe for many generations and many years. I would say this, we have had four reactors at three sites in New York — going on some since the eighties, some since the seventies — up on Lake Ontario.

They have worked perfectly as planned. They've been safe. And even the technologies today in 2025, are dramatically improved. I mean, the safety measures — scaling back the size that's required. This is not — as I said — your grandmother's or your grandfather's nuclear reactor. It's vastly different.

But security and safety will be my number one priorities when we get through this process. And so I'll be looking closely about how we can do this and really alleviate the fears, but given that we have so much energy demand, and we are trying to so hard to wean ourselves from the old coal fire plants and the fossil fuels that have created so many greenhouse emissions that are changing our climate — we're feeling it now — we don't have a choice.

We are still leaning into solar and wind and geothermal and battery storage, but the capacity is just not there. So this is an option that I will ensure meets all the safety requirements, but it's been widely used across the country. And across the world, and we're missing an opportunity here to lead.

Andrew Donovan, NewsChannel 9: You're sitting down to discuss this with a Central New York reporter. So the obvious question is — how much of this project is intended for Oswego County?

Governor Hochul: All I'll say is this, we are having a process that's starting right away. I mean, we announced it yesterday, but we've been working on this for a solid year. So when the announcement came, we'd be ready to just jump right into this. And so we'll be looking at sites. But what I'm so excited about, Andrew, is that unlike probably decades ago, and communities were very anxious and hostile to the idea of having this in their geographic area, everybody wants it now. I mean, at least upstate.

And I left this event at the Niagara Power Authority in Lewiston, New York. And even elected officials there were saying, “Can it come to my community? Can it come to my community?” So we know that Central New York needs a lot of power because of Micron and other companies coming, but I will not be in a position to say the location.

And again, there's two major options here. One large scale facility to create one gigawatt of power, that'll power about a million homes. Or do we do smaller, maybe four or five small modular reactors, they're called, which will go into more communities. So those decisions are yet to be made. But most importantly, we are starting the process.

We are leaning into our clean energy future, and I'm so proud to be the person who got this going and saying, “What are we waiting for? The demand is there. New Yorkers deserve more affordability and reliability, so let's get started.”

Andrew Donovan, NewsChannel 9: Dare I say in this day and age, this is getting bipartisan positive feedback, including from Oswego County. You have the Republican Minority Leader, Will Barclay, praising this — saying, “Oswego County wants this.” You have the Republican Majority, Oswego County legislature saying they welcome this. What does Oswego County have to do to position itself to be granted this project?

Governor Hochul: Well, again, I'm not going to put my thumb on the scale right now. There's a lot of experts I'll be bringing to the table to analyze this, and there's a long process involved as it stands involving the federal government. What I'm trying to do — and I appreciate the bipartisan support as a leader for the entire state — I want everyone to know that party affiliation makes no difference to me when it comes to finding ways to make sure that all New Yorkers have more affordable power so their utility bills can finally be stabilized instead of going up and up and up, and support our businesses. And Oswego has been an amazing host. I mean, this is an important employer in their area. I've been up in that area many times and it's wildly embraced by the community. I know at a time when we are looking at the specter of losing several hundreds of jobs in that area, we fought hard to ensure that there was new ownership, that we could get this going. So I appreciate how they've embraced nuclear. They're a good example, but I can't say at this time where it's going to go.