Governor Hochul: "I'm really proud to be here this particular week, again, with our administrator, to tell you that we are in sync with the goals of the Biden administration, and we want to continue to be aggressive and bold because we have no choice. This is not a job for the faint of heart, your job, my job, it demands bold actions and I'm an impatient person, anyhow, so this is right up my alley. And when we have opportunities to think big, bigger than any other state, count me in. I want to be not just nation leading, but global leading. I announced that yesterday in front of the world at a conference and I'm there paying attention to New York. New York is being paid attention to in terms of our big thoughts and our boldness."
Administrator Regan: "When President Biden was here in New York recently, touring the damage left in the wake of Hurricane Ida, he said the world was facing a code red situation when it comes to climate change. That's a sobering fact, but it's one that we can do something about. The president understands that we need to take swift action to address this crisis, head on, to protect America's health and safety and to reap the benefits that come from actions like those that the Governor is taking here in New York."
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul joined U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan during Climate Week to highlight New York State's climate agenda and new investments.
VIDEO of today'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 are available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of today's remarks is available below:
Commissioner Basil Seggos: Well, good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Javits Center here in Manhattan. What a beautiful facility this is. Alan Steel is truly a visionary. Some of the work he's done here to this facility over the last number of years really is breathtaking. You see some of the results of that right here on this roof, with apple trees in front of you and a vegetable garden behind you, green roof capturing all that stormwater. Alan, you've done really fantastic work. Hats off to Alan for his fantastic workforce.
We'd be remiss if we didn't thank you also for your work on COVID, which really helped to inoculate nearly 700,000 New Yorkers. So congratulations for your work on that. So welcome to day number two of Climate Week. It's great to be doing this here in New York City. We have esteemed guests with us today. Administrator Michael Regan of the EPA, right in front of us. Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin. Alan Steel, as I noted. Doreen Harris, President and CEO of NYSERDA. Molly Larkin, Senior Vice President, COO for the Environmental Facilities Corporation. And of course, Governor Kathy Hochul, everyone.
It's a windy day on the roof here. So it's appropriate to do Climate Week here in New York City. You know, we are no stranger to climate change in New York. We view this as an existential crisis. We view it as an economic crisis as well, and certainly a crisis for our communities. We've seen incredible impacts here in New York. We've seen incredible impacts everywhere, but when we see it in New York, when we see the incredible amount of rain that could fall in this city and the damage that can be done to our environment and to lives, that it causes a rethink.
We're also no stranger in New York to action, action of any kind on social issues, economic issues, certainly environmental issues, having been a leader for decades in this state here, charting a course forward, providing solutions. And that's certainly so on climate and climate action. We two years ago signed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which is often regarded as one of the most aggressive of any law in the nation. It's setting us on a course to net zero and a course to helping the most disadvantaged communities by directing 40 percent of the benefits into those communities to right the wrongs of the past. And of course on water and resiliency, you know, we have the Hudson River behind us, and we are a very water-rich state, but we also see certainly that water can be a force for damage if it's not controlled appropriately. So we've done incredible work over the years, putting money into resiliency programs.
But really, you know, you can have programs, but if you don't have strong leadership, those kinds of efforts often fall flat. And we're so fortunate now to have a Governor in Kathy Hochul, just four weeks into this job, I think four weeks today, governor? Four weeks into this job who has hit the ground running like I've never seen on climate work, and on resiliency. Of course, impacted by two major storms right in the first few days of her administration, but also providing real solutions. We see a commitment to zero emission vehicles, clean trucks, really incredible announcements yesterday on clean transmission, bringing clean power from upstate and Canada into New York City, half the city's power then to be powered by renewables and really amazing, as well as the incredible announcements on solar statewide. And I know she's got more to come.
This is an exciting week, and certainly I would go back four weeks ago to her second day on the job, when she met with Administrator Regan. Administrator Regan came to Albany, and sat down with the Governor, sat down with us and then got out into the communities, which is, in my view, what has made him so strong off the bat, getting out into communities, listening, hearing, seeing the damage that's been done over the years from climate change and certainly the issues of disadvantaged communities. That has been a hallmark of his work when he was commissioner down in North Carolina. And I know it will serve him well. I put him on the spot the last time I saw him noting that I think he will go down as the greatest EPA administrator. And I say that for the reasons I just mentioned, but also because he's got a president who truly believes in his mission in the EPA, and the importance of the EPA and its partnerships with state and local authorities, and nonprofits, and bringing in representatives from the EJ communities.
So I think that has set him up well, but he's truly a man of leading from the front. I know that that will serve us well in this incredible partnership that we have. We were in the Bronx yesterday seeing some of the innovative actions being taken on reducing damage to local communities from air emissions and making our buildings more resilient. And I know he'll have plenty to think about and talk about from that visit, but thank you for being here, Administrator. But now it's my pleasure to introduce the great Governor of the State of New York, Kathy Hochul.
Governor Hochul: Thank you, commissioner. And truly, you have had such an impact on the people of this state during your tenure, and I'm really proud to have you continue serving with me. And I know that there's a legacy that's been created under your watch that is not going to just be here for us today, but for generations to come. And your daughter's daughters and daughters. And so, thank you for your great work. And delighted to be here with our administrator from the EPA. I said he's taken up residency here in New York. I mean, just, and you know, it really is the state you want to be in. Let's just get that out there. There's no place like New York, especially during UN week, Climate Week, when we just deal with traffic, like it's an ordinary day. And I want to thank you for already showing the leadership of yourself and empowering the values of the Biden Administration throughout this nation in terms of our priorities in protecting our planet. So thank you, Administrator Regan.
My great Lieutenant Governor is here, Brian Benjamin. We've done many events together and continue. Thank you for all you do. I know that climate justice, environmental justice is very important to you personally as we go out to communities that have been hard hit. And I thank you for your continued work there.
Also, Alan Steel. We were here literally one year ago today during a pandemic, even during a pandemic, you kept building, you kept this project moving forward. You kept working on building a farm, a farm on the rooftop here and producing honey and creating really an environmental innovation lab here at the Javits Center. And I believe that all other facilities like this around the globe ought to pay attention to what you're doing here, because this is earth shattering in terms of the scale of what you've accomplished here. And we cannot wait to get all the tourists back and everybody back in the city, now that we've had the suspension of the travel restrictions for 33 countries, and you're poised and ready to go with over 3.3 million square feet of a magnificent space here in a place that is just spectacularly gorgeous.
I'm really happy to be back here. This is just something that really matters to me. And people say, why does the climate and environmental issues mean so much to you? Have you ever seen Lackawanna, New York? Did you ever see it years ago when it was basically an environmental cesspool? That's where I'm from, my hometown. I was born in Lackawanna and my parents lived in a trailer park in the shadow of the steel plant that by day was discharging the most ominous fumes and clouds of orange smoke and you couldn't breathe. I mean, as a child, we'd be going to play in a playground there and it was just a horrific and everyone thought the sky was supposed to be orange. That's the color of the sky, right? Well, that was the pollution out of the steel plant.
And then what did we do for fun? When you don't have a lot of money, you go swimming in the lake. Lake Erie, one of the largest freshwater bodies on the earth. We watched Bethlehem Steel dump slack into it every single day. No one realized that we are witnessing an environmental apocalypse, but not to be outdone, just down the road was Love Canal.
So, I grew up seared with the knowledge that people's lives are so adversely affected from having to live in that environment, but also the health effects, quite extraordinary. And I'm just lucky to be alive today, sometimes when I think about what we went through as children and did not know how bad it was, so that's why I'm an environmental activist.
How could I not be with that experience as a child and making sure that no child has to deal with the specter of dirty air, dirty water, or having the challenge of trying to breathe if you live in a place called Asthma Alley here in the city. That to me is an environmental injustice and that's what we're going to continue fighting.
So, I'm really proud to be here this particular week, again, with our administrator, to tell you that we are in sync with the goals of the Biden administration, and we want to continue to be aggressive and bold because we have no choice. This is not a job for the faint of heart, your job, my job, it demands bold actions and I'm an impatient person, anyhow, so this is right up my alley. And when we have opportunities to think big, bigger than any other state, count me in. I want to be not just nation leading, but global leading. I announced that yesterday in front of the world at a conference and I'm there paying attention to New York. New York is being paid attention to in terms of our big thoughts and our boldness.
I also, you know, just to reiterate what Basil was talking about, we have been bold. We have been very, very bold. We have the largest combined renewable energy awards issued by any state. We're moving ahead with historic offshore, wind, solar. We've doubled down on solar, raised our solar energy goals to 10 gigawatts by 2030.
And just yesterday, I announced something that I think surprised a lot of people. We are considering a number of proposals for a transmission line to really replace the old antiquated, dirty of fossil fuel plants that are now generating power for New York City. We knew they had to go. So, we've had a bidding process, a review process, and there were two plans that made it to the finals and one was hydroelectric power down from transmission lines from Quebec. Another would bring in wind and solar in from Delaware County, all to take care of New York City, to reduce the pollution into launch us into an energy future.
So, we're supposed to pick one and I said, why can't we do both? Think about it. If we do both simultaneously, why would we wait when we're in the middle of a climate crisis? That shows my impatience. If they're approved by the public service commission, I hope they will be, we'll be making sure that we are bolstering up our resources and changing the dynamic where people are living in areas in this city where the air is not good and the children's lives are literally being affected by bad environmental factors.
So, we're going to change that. Dirty air, lung disease, heart disease, premature death. Those all trouble me and they're happening more in Black and brown communities in this country and that is an injustice. And we're going to stop that because right now, Black and brown Americans are exposed to one and a half times more sooty pollution that comes from burning these fossil fuel plants. And that's the world I grew up in and I don't want it to be the world for our children. So, we're taking direct action.
How do we deal with dirty air? Something that I still have bad images of as child. I'm directing the State Department of Environmental Conservation to work with NYSERDA to launch the nation's most expansive air quality monitoring effort, first of a kind. We're going to work with our climate justice working group, a very important advisory group to us with representatives from the environmental justice communities.
We're going to identify 10 disadvantaged communities that are home over 5 million New Yorkers. We're going to test the latest technology. Use comprehensive and hyper-local picture of air quality in these targeted areas to identify specific actions we can take not later, but right now to improve it. Community engagement is going to be key. We're going to be awarding $500,000 in capacity, building grants to key organizations to help them be on the ground to tell us what's happening. Not directed out of people sitting in an office in Albany. It's going to be on the ground driven, people are going to see what's happening, they experience what's happening, and they're going to be our early warning system.
Now I want to talk to you about something that's been front and center, literally, since I took office and that's water. Sometimes too much water. As you heard from the commissioner, in the span of two weeks, Hurricanes Henri and Ida sent New Yorkers a message that we are in a new climate reality. And because of those two experiences, we had a record-breaking rainfall, like 1.9 inches in Central Park. One week, 10 days later, we crushed that record that people said was a 500-year event. 10 days later, It happened again, except we had, well over three and a half inches of rainfall. It was Niagara Falls coming out of the sky.
As you saw the images of flooding our subways and more than our subways, it devastated people's homes. And as I walked through the streets of Queens and the aftermath, East Elmhurst, which cruelly had also been the epicenter of the pandemic as if this community had not gone through enough, there lives were just, just ruined.
And I watched, I walked the streets. I went back to the same neighborhood, not once, not twice, but three times, because I said, we are not going to forget you. We brought FEMA, we brought the president. We had all the resources on the ground and I said, we're not going to forget you. But the truth is they were vulnerable from the beginning, living in these homes that were basements, that should never have been the case.
They should have had better quality of life. But also I literally saw the vulnerability of an alley where you're just inviting a river to come down and flood people the way the infrastructure was not created to be able to sustain that. And so we had people lose their lives and it was just creating an image in my mind that we're not talking in abstracts.
We're not talking about the future. We're talking about people who were alive one day and dead the next, because of climate changes that we could not have foreseen. It was devastating, devastating. So we have to do so much more and I'm operating under the assumption that literally every 10 days we could go through this, not every 500 years, not 100 years, but literally from this experience as a brand new governor.
What happened under my watch in the last four weeks tells me we have to be on hyper speed in terms of addressing the climate. So I want to outline a few key steps we're taking as part of our comprehensive climate resiliency agenda. First, as I saw on those streets, it's all about the infrastructure. We have to get back to fixing the infrastructure immediately.
I'm very excited about what we anticipate to be coming out of Washington, but while we're still waiting for the, all those dollars to come, we're going to spend a few of our own. I'm announcing we're making more than $600 million available for shovel-ready water infrastructure and resiliency projects across the state.
That's not a small amount of change my friends that's $400 million for the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act, $200 million for the Water Quality Improvement Program, 20 million for the Green Infrastructure Grant Program, and $10 million for an Expanded Asset Management Program for local government. So projects like the Bowery Bay wastewater plant will receive over $12.5 million in grants.
It's just one example, and we're going to have projects all over the state. This will be money for local governments. Having spent 14 years as a local government official, we are always asking Albany for money for our infrastructure, our wastewater treatment plants, our stormwater projects. Always came up short, always came up short.
Now we're here to be partners with the local governments and also create jobs. I mean, not only is it good for the environment, good for the people live there, it's creates a lot of jobs. So we're going to continue focusing on this as well. We're also excited to be moving to some other projects as well.
Here's a big one, friends. You all know that we have a $3 billion proposal and Environmental Bond Act to fund environmental infrastructure projects, that goes before the voters next November, I want to continue building the support for this because I do believe that voters, if they weren't sure what this vague concept of environmental bonds were all about. Now they see the reality of how we can make sure that we are more prepared and more resilient for the impending storms that we know are just perhaps around the corner.
So a $3 billion bond act. It sounds like a lot, right? I'm going back to the legislature and I'm going to ask the legislature in my budget to add another billion dollars on top of it. So the voters will be asked to approve $4 billion investment in the future of our state, our nation and our planet. And that to me is a small price to pay. And I actually calculated what the price is per family.
Those who follow my social media know I'm a fan of a place called Shake Shack. I was there last night at dinner the night before I like the veggie burgers. Okay. So what's the cost per of this dramatic investment in the future of our planet. It's the cost of dinner for two at Shake Shack every year. Okay. That's it. $36 on average per family for the next 20 years, I'm willing to invest in that. I think most New Yorkers and hopefully all New Yorkers will be willing to invest in that.
And if you're from Buffalo, you can quantify the cost of a couple of chicken wings and a pizza wherever you are. There's something you can equate to and say, Yes, I can afford this. I can do this because our planet depends on it. So we are also renaming this effort to recognize the urgency. We're renaming it, the [Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act] of 2022.
You heard it here first. We want to get the word out and create an excitement that people are actually taking charge. We are fighting back against mother nature and for too long, as I said, my remarks yesterday, man, mankind has been assaulting mother nature. And now she's getting some revenge on us. Okay, let's stop the war.
Let's have a truce, let's co-exist with mother nature, and this is how we're going to build our resiliency. So we continue to save lives, protect the quality of life and the quality of health in this state. So I work closely with the legislature and that's an important dynamic here. I need their support.
I believe they'll understand the importance of this. And let me wrap it up by saying there was a great environmentalist, Wendell Berry who wrote "The earth is all we have in common", it connects us, connects each and every one of us. And you think about this during UN week, as I had the opportunity to meet leaders from Great Britain and Ireland, yesterday, as many are coming to our community, the earth is the common denominator for all of us.
Every one of us has the weight of responsibility on our shoulders, to not just protect it now, but protected for future generations. And to end the wrongs of the past. That let a little kid like me growing up in Lackawanna and Buffalo to have experienced the trauma of seeing this assault on our environment today.
We're saying no more, no more. Not under our watch, not now, not ever. Thank you very much. And I appreciate everyone who's part of this effort and with that, a great, great, great ally of ours. Our EPA administers, and I never knew what cool people they could be. I mean, this guy is awesome. We've had a chance to get to know him. He's taken New York State by storm, and I want to welcome Michael Regan administrator of the environmental protection agency for the Biden ministration, Mr. Administrator.
Administrator Michael S. Regan: Good morning. You know, I learned something this morning. Both I and the governor are impatient. People were in a hurry, and we'd like Shake hack. That's pretty good. You know, if the governor and I met on day two and four weeks later, we're having this conversation. If four weeks are any indication of what this state is to expect, this state is going to expect really great things. Thank you for your leadership.
Commissioner Seggos, our partnership is invaluable. I appreciate your leadership. The Biden Administration pledged from day one that the federal government and state governments would have strong partnerships. And I couldn't be happier to have a partnership with you, Allan, what a magnificent facility. Yesterday, I met with all of the elected agricultural commissioners from across the country. If I'd have known, I was visiting a farm, I would have taken advantage of that. Lieutenant governor. Congratulations. Thank you for your leadership as well. You know, New York is demonstrating how states can maximize the impact of state and federal dollars to make our communities more resilient, to put people back to work, and as the president says, to build back better.
Governor, I'm especially proud to hear about the air quality monitoring that you will be undertaking and underserved communities. It mirrors the work that EPA is doing to address the long-standing health and environmental inequities that face communities of color. The announcements that the governor just laid out embody the promise of making smart strategic investments in climate resiliency and in protecting overburden communities from pollution -investments that could not have been or never be more urgent.
Unfortunately, New Yorkers know firsthand the devastating impacts of climate change. From catastrophic flooding, like what we've just witnessed with Hurricane Ida, from unprecedented heat waves that all too often hit communities of color and they're still recovering from the aftermath -you all are still recovering from the aftermath -of Superstorm Sandy, who's cascading impacts are no doubt seared into New York's memory. But New York, unfortunately, is far from being alone. I've spent a lot of time recently traveling the country, visiting communities on the ground, nearly everywhere I go, there's been a telltale sign of what we must do and how we must move with a sense of urgency. From historic droughts in Iowa and Arizona that have undercut farmers livelihoods to wildfires out west that have forced people to abandon their homes. In the last few months alone, weather disasters have struck one in three Americans across the country. One in three Americans across the country.
When President Biden was here in New York recently, touring the damage left in the wake of Hurricane Ida, he said the world was facing a code red situation when it comes to climate change. That's a sobering fact, but it's one that we can do something about. The president understands that we need to take swift action to address this crisis, head on, to protect America's health and safety and to reap the benefits that come from actions like those that the Governor is taking here in New York.
Because on the other side of this crisis, we all know there's opportunity. When the president hears climate, he hears jobs. He hears good paying union jobs in every community across the country, we can put people to work, building modern, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure. Reenergizing our power sector and spurring electric vehicle manufacturing. We can make our places of learning healthier and safer for our kids by making our school buildings more energy efficiency efficient, and our school buses electric powered instead of diesel powered. And we can deliver climate justice for black, Latinix, indigenous, and low-income communities who have long borne the burden of pollution.
This administration, along with this new administration here in New York is laser-focused on making investments today. Like those that Governor Hochul just unveiled that will prepare communities for these extreme events that are growing in frequency and severity. And that's exactly what the bipartisan infrastructure deal is. It's a shot in the arm and a game changer for American people, especially working families. And addressing the climate crisis is making the largest investment in clean energy transmission and electric vehicle infrastructure in history. And electrifying thousands of school buses and transit buses across the country.
At the same time, it shores up infrastructure to the climate impacts we're facing today. Impacts that disproportionately harmed communities of color and low-income communities. And it provides EPA with $50 billion to accelerate progress on much needed water infrastructure improvements, including removing lead service lines, addressing PFAs and improving drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure all across this country.
Through this infrastructure bill and President Biden's plan to build back better, we can build on the announcements Governor Hochul made today. We can create good paying jobs right here in New York and in communities nationwide. And we can fundamentally change and improve people's lives. That's how we create stronger, healthier, more equitable communities. And that's exactly what we're going to do with this partnership with the state of New York. Thank you.
Alan Steel: Well, thank you. And thank you to all of you who are visiting today and seeing our green roof and our orchard and our beautiful space. I'm very fortunate to have been put in a position where I could do what we have done here and together with my team, we've really worked hard to make Javits just not a place where conventions happen, but where we're connected to the community and where we can demonstrate the value of sustainable practices.
So I'm delighted to have you here and I'm delighted to invite all of you to come back sometime and take a more specific tour with us where we can talk the details through with you because there's a lot behind this that you haven't yet seen. Governor, when you are talking about growing up in Lackawanna, I wasn't born in Lackawanna as you might be able to tell from my accent. But I was born in a place called Newcastle and Newcastle is a place where you don't take coal to. The reason you don't take coal there was because we had so much of it. I grew up in the shadow of a Coke plant where you turned coal into Coke.
I remember going back to my hometown about 15 years after I left it. And after the Clean Air Act had been passed in the UK and suddenly realizing they were green hills around us that I'd never been able to see before. So these acts, this information, these things that we do, and the money that we make available are really important for all of us. There are demonstrable benefits for communities of all kinds, and we really need to support them and to continue to do more of them. I think with that, I will, however, say that the reason we're here is not for sustainable practices. We're here for economic benefit. Our job is to create work.
And so I was delighted to have the opportunity to talk to Lieutenant Governor Benjamin about ways that we can work together to bring more convention, business, and more economic activities in New York. And I look forward to continuing that conversation. So with that, I'm going to, I think, move to questions and answers.
And so governor, administrator, if you'd care to come back to the podium.