Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: During Climate Week, Governor Hochul Announces Major Progress in Modernization of New York's Largest Clean Hydropower Project, State's Bedrock of Carbon-Free Electricity

Earlier today, during Climate Week, Governor Kathy Hochul announced completion of a major $460 million modernization and life extension effort at the New York Power Authority's Lewiston Pump Generating Plant and the digitization of the first of 13 hydropower turbines at the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant. The digitization is the first major milestone of Next Generation Niagara, a $1.1 billion, 15-year modernization and digitization program to significantly extend the operating life of the Niagara Power Project. Together, these projects represent nearly $1.6 billion of clean energy infrastructure investments at the Niagara Power Project that will help advance New York State's aggressive clean energy goal to transition to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040. Governor Hochul visited the Robert Moses plant today to tour the upgrades and digitization efforts.

VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

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

Thank you, John, for the fabulous introduction and the homecoming, the welcome that I always feel when I'm in this part of the state. And John, you have been an extraordinary public servant for many years, taking so seriously the responsibility of the stewardship of what we're doing here and so many other places across the state. So I just want to give you a round of applause for the leadership you've displayed as our chairman.

And Gil Quiniones, the president and CEO, we were just together in New York City a day or two ago, yesterday, I don't even know anymore, it's been such a joy to work with you and to share your vision of the great potential we have of harnessing this power, not just to keep the lights on, but truly to fund incredible projects in every corner of the state. So I've shared in the work that you've done in places like children's museums and places all across, you know, look at what's happening in Buffalo and Niagara Falls as a result of this, our hometowns. So thank you for making sure that we spend all the money in the right places to help lift up people across the state. Let's give a round of applause.

And Daniella Piper, thank you for the great tour we just did. My hair is a little messy, I had the helmet on a couple of minutes ago. But this is not my first time here. You and Chris and others who gave us a tour, I came here as a tourist, a resident of this area, with my family, many times. I came here as a member of Congress and got the full tour of all the turbines and got the whole sense of everything that's involved here. I've been here even five years ago. I came to mark the milestone of the halfway point for where we are today. So I was so glad, I couldn't have foreseen five years ago that I'd be serving as Governor for this milestone, but it's pretty good to be here. It's very good to be here.

But also, other partners, and that includes the amazing men and women of 2104, 2-1-0-4, our great partners at IBEW, you guys do such incredible work. Lou, thank you for your leadership. Extraordinary, extraordinary. And I also want to point out something that most people do not know. The incredible sacrifices that were endured during this pandemic. Everyone's talked about the essential workers and you think of healthcare. Yes. They're essential, the grocery store workers, but did everybody notice that their lights stayed on, the power continued to flow into your homes and your businesses during a global pandemic? Who do you think made that happen?

It's the men and women, many how to be sequestered literally for 30 days in trailers, because we could not afford to have someone who knew how to unleash this power that is so necessary, the lifeline across the state, we couldn't have them go down with COVID. So they literally sacrifice 30 days alone, away from their families to make sure they stayed healthy during the pandemic to keep the lights on in the State of New York. Let's give all the members of this family an incredible round of applause for their sacrifice.

And why we're so excited about the clean energy opportunity afforded by this plant. I don't know that John Kennedy made those beautiful remarks about this and the work that was done by 11,000 men and women, probably mostly men, but people who built this back in the late fifties and sixties, this is basically as audacious as the Erie Canal was when that was first built.

And people said, are you kidding me? Can you really do that? And we got it done in four years, and that is still going to go down as part of the legacy of this incredible massive facility that continues to such a critical part of our state. Our state does not live without this facility. We cannot exist without this power, but back then, we weren't talking about how important clean power truly was for protecting our environment.

We hadn't seen the apocalypse, which is now occurring in our country and our nation, across the world because of climate change. It's been devastating. The floods, the storms, the raging weather, records being broken all the time. More water, more high temperature, more fires out west.

It's been quite extraordinary. And I want to say that it's such a point of pride for me to know that in my home state of New York, We have been leading the wave for generations and it all started with the vision behind this plant that you are all a part of. And it's also hundreds of thousands of jobs across the state reliant on this plant.

So I am very proud to announce the completion of this ten year $460 million modernization of New York Power Authority's Lewiston pump generating plant. This now says we're ready, not just for the 21st century, but beyond. And I want to let them know that we have state of the art, digital controls, we replaced 12 pump turbines that went back to the very beginning of this facility. Getting a little old, my friends, it was time to retool these pumps and we got it done in this decade. We also said that we have that we have to do more to digitize. We have 13 hydro-power turbines right here, and we are launching the next generation plant, which has a $1.1 billion, 15-year modernization and digitization program that's replacing aging equipment with world-class technology. Together this represents $1.6 billion of clean energy infrastructure improvements.

We may not live long enough to see the fruits of what we're doing here, but our children and their children will have a cleaner environment launching into the future and their lives as a result of the work that we're doing here, leaning hard into our clean energy opportunities. It's going to advance New York State's aggressive, clean energy goal of transitioning 100 percent, 100 percent carbon free by 2040. And so we're going to continue fighting. Sometimes the rages of Mother Nature feels like she's getting the upper hand, but this is how we fight back. We build resiliency, we launch clean power and we invest in projects like these. And I want to thank every person who is involved in this extraordinary decade, long journey to get us where we are today. But again, we're launching another one for the next 15 years to make sure that we are prepared for the challenges of the future.

You, my friends are all part of that incredible story. And I thank you for the role you've played. Thank you very much.