Project Will Enable Transmission of Additional 3,700 Megawatts of Renewable Energy Throughout New York State
Accelerates Progress to Exceed 70 Percent Renewable Electricity by 2030 and Net Zero-Emission Grid by 2040
Project to Deliver $950 Million in Lifetime Customer Savings and Avoid 7.4 Million Tons of Carbon Emissions
Governor Hochul: "We are going to have 70 percent of electricity from renewables by 2030. That is extraordinary Your participation here today means you are part of this story of how we decided, intentionally, to shift from fossil fuel energy sources and say, no, we're going clean."
Hochul: "We just authorized a number of major lines that are going to be powering New York City; Clean Path New York, Champlain Power Express. People thought those were almost too bold in their scale, too ambitious. And I said, no, we can get this done, we're New Yorkers We're going to continue our bold efforts, but this project here today, an important cornerstone in our efforts to literally save and protect our planet, power homes and businesses, lower cost to our consumers and creating jobs in the process."
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the commissioning of the Empire State Line, a project that will upgrade the energy transmission system that serves Western New York with a new, 20-mile 345 kilovolt line. Operated by NextEra Energy Transmission New York, the Empire State Line will increase transmission capacity and integrate more renewable energy into the state's electric grid.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the event is available here.
PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Thank you, everyone. Thank you.
I wanted to welcome Rebecca here. Her home is in South Florida. I assume she timed this to be able to coincide with the most spectacular weather in the nation, which is right here in Western New York. So, smart woman. I could tell she's smart enough. What a great leader of this extraordinary company. So, thank you.
And also to Richard Allen, the President. We'll be hearing from Richard Dewey, of course. David Cummings. I'm a little partial to local government officials having served 14 years on a town board. So, I feel your pain, and also to the other representatives from towns and supervisors, thank you for being really aware.
The rubber meets the road. When these projects come through, you also have to be listening to your constituents. There's a lot of anxiety and what's this going to do to my neighborhood and is this going to disrupt my quality of life? And they have a project like this to be able to explain to people, no, you're going to be okay.
This is the first one of nature of this kind we've had over in 40 years. Is that right? 40 years, that's extraordinary, but it's going on existing right away. And that's how we should get these done. So, I want to thank all the local officials and all the members of your teams who had to do so much work to get this over the finish line.
Why am I here today? I'm really partial to the name. I love the word Empire State Line. It kind of reminds me of the, you know, grandeur of New York State and what we strive for. We're very aspirational here in the State of New York. We dream big, we dream boldly and we actually accomplish extraordinary things.
So, you're part of that story. And I want to make sure that when it comes to energy transformation, we have the right transmission line to do it. We have incredible sources of power here right in our backyard. Niagara Falls and how we've harnessed that for so many generations. And I want to thank my partners at NYPA here as well for the work they do. But we had to undo a bottleneck and there's so much energy that has to come.
As you said, replace preexisting sources that no longer were there because we have to make sure we transition to clean energy. How do you get clean energy to people? You have to build new transmission lines. And so I thank you for being a partner with us in state government to accomplish that important goal.
And as you've heard a couple of times, we do proudly have the most ambitious energy goals in the nation. And if they're not, we'll one up a little bit more because we're always going to be the best. This is New York. We're a little bit bold - Rebecca, you'll learn that about New Yorkers. We're very bold and proud of our state.
We are going to have 70 percent of electricity from renewables by 2030. That is extraordinary. And when we accomplish that and I'm sure you'll all be here by 2030 - a little while ago, it sounded like so far off into the future. No, we're all going to be here in 2030. You're going to know on this day you are part of that energy revolution. Your participation here today means you are part of this story of how we decided, intentionally, to shift from fossil fuel energy sources and say, no, we're going clean.
We're going renewable and we're going to be protecting our environment. So renewable energy across the state is so important. We just authorized a number of major lines that are going to be powering New York City; Clean Path New York, Champlain Power Express. People thought those were almost too bold in their scale, too ambitious. And I said, no, we can get this done, we're New Yorkers.
So, that'll help take care of New York City's energy challenges, but also right here in Western New York. I'm a little partial to Western New York. I know Western New York, I used to represent this area. So, I want to make sure that the points closest to those energy sources also are served with low-cost, reliable power and that's what we're doing here today. And as you heard the words, 3,700 megawatts of clean energy, 3,700. 3,700. I said, what does that mean? For people like me, what does that actually mean? That's one and a half times the capacity of the Robert Moses Niagara Hydroelectric Pan. So we're talking about something rather extraordinary here. And I said, what will that do? Well, it's going to reduce carbon emissions by 7.4 million tons. Okay, what does that mean? That's the equivalent of getting a million and a half cars off the road every year. That's the impact on our environment of what we're doing here today and why we're doing it.
And, not the least of which is also how we save our consumers on their bills. This will save over the lifespan of this project over 950 million in reduced demand and congestion and production cost savings. And that goes back into the pockets of our consumers.
So I want to give a big round of applause to Nextra for getting the job done. These are extraordinary accomplishments, but also, how was this built? It was built by the best labor you can find, and that is by Western New York Building Trades. I want to thank the laborers represented by Sam Capitano here. We had over 150 labor jobs. Those are great jobs, there's a lot of dignity in this and all those workers need to know when they look up the work that they did, their handiwork, that they're actually part of challenging all of us to do better for future generations. And it doesn't hurt that results in $3.5 million in local revenues for the local municipalities, let's get round applause for all of those people watching your budget.
And this is an important time earlier this week, I made some other clean energy announcements, why are we talking about this so much because we are the first generation to really feel the effects of climate change. We truly are. The unbelievable effects of the climate and what's happening in other parts of our country, but even here in New York State, we had a hurricane. I took office less than a year ago. During my first week on the job, I had not one, but two hurricanes slamming New York City, shutting down our subways. It was extraordinary, that never happened before. And there's a direct correlation between climate change and what's happening to our climate itself. So we are the first generation to really feel the effects. We're also the last generation that can do something meaningful about it.
And that's why today's story is so important. It's not just about us here today, but it's also about future generations. And as a first-time grandmother, I'm really focused on future generations, because I have a little tiny baby that's looking to all of us to make the decisions today that will lead to a much brighter future for them tomorrow. So I want to thank all of you for being here today. We're going to continue our bold efforts, but this project here today, an important cornerstone in our efforts to literally save and protect our planet, power homes and businesses, lower cost to our consumers and creating jobs in the process. If this is not a win-win, I don't know what it is, but so, thank you, everybody. Congratulations on the great success here.