Challengers to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo were on the campaign trail Thursday, as the Democrat announced a massive new anti-poverty program in Brooklyn. Democratic candidate Cynthia Nixon visited the Finger Lakes to voice her opposition to a controversial proposed liquefied natural gas plant on Seneca Lake.
The gas company Crestwood wants to store liquid propane gas in caverns created from salt mining along Seneca Lake. They are awaiting a decision from Governor Cuomo’s Department of Environmental Conservation.
Nixon says if she’s elected governor, she’ll “drive a stake into the heart” of the project, which she says could damage the lake’s water quality. She says she’s also against a proposed garbage burning waste-to-energy plant in Romulus, just a few miles from the lake. She says it is completely inappropriate for the state’s “world-class” wine region, which she compared to the famous wine regions of California.
“California Governor Jerry Brown would never, ever allow a giant garbage incinerator to be sited in the middle of Napa Valley,” Nixon said. “Why in the world would our governor, Andrew Cuomo, sit idly by and allow this incinerator to be sited in the heart of the Finger Lakes?”
Nixon says in 2011, Cuomo signed a law that made it easier for projects like the Romulus plant to get state permits. Nixon says she’d repeal that law.
A spokesman for the Department of Environmental Conservation, Sean Mahar, says a “final determination” has not yet been made on whether to issue the permits for the gas storage plant. He did not offer a timetable for a decision. Mahar said the garbage burning plant is being reviewed by a state siting board, and will “undergo an extensive environmental and public review process." He says the board has the power to “deny any project that is not protective of public health and the environment."
Governor Cuomo, meanwhile, was in Brooklyn announcing a large-scale economic development project that he says would bring $1.5 billion to the borough. It would build more than 2,000 new affordable housing units, open new health care facilities, create new parks and open new farmers markets.
“By the end of 2020 we're going to have it all up and running. It's real, it's happening, it's going to make a difference in the lives of people who've been struggling for too long,” Cuomo said to applause from the audience invited to the event.
And, Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro stopped in Albany after locking up the Republican nomination for governor. Molinaro received the endorsement of the party leaders in Westchester, Niagara and Albany counties. Molinaro, who was raised by a single mother in modest circumstances, seemed a bit overwhelmed by the milestone.
“I’m humbled,” said Molinaro, who said he’s gone from receiving food stamps as a boy to being the likely nominee of a major political party for governor of New York.
Senate Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco announced Wednesday that he was suspending his campaign for governor, clearing the way for Molinaro’s nomination at the Republican state convention in May. First elected to the Senate in 1992, DeFrancisco, of the Syracuse area, announced Thursday he would not seek re-election in November.
