AI centers have become the hot button issue in several races across the country seemingly within the last month, and that includes many races in New York State. Governor Kathy Hochul has declared a moratorium on data center construction, a move which her gubernatorial challenger, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, promises to reverse if he’s elected. In the Hudson Valley, Congressman Mike Lawler upped the ante on data centers, saying the construction of a data center in Orangeburg should be a federal issue, not a local one. Former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, who hosts the Rob Astorino Show on WOR Saturdays at 4pm, discussed what Lawler and Blakeman have to do to keep their Election Day on track.
Astorino reminded Curtis and Larry that AI data center development is still a local issue, and hopes that voters remember that Lawler and Blakeman had nothing to do with the moratorium when they pull the lever: “There’s a lot of misinformation about data centers and there’s a lot of fear about them, but I think you’ve got to let the boil go down, you know, take off the flame a little bit so people, instead of screaming with pitchforks, can understand what it is and then put the rules in, which is why, as you mentioned before, for Blakeman, if he loses the whole race based on AI data centers and allows Hochul to get away with this, it would be such a tragedy.”
The cost of electricity rates is a statewide issue, though, and Astorino is quick to remind people that Lawler has a solution: to undo Andrew Cuomo’s decision to close Indian Point: “That’s a real bad precedent that could come back at some point, not just what they used for Indian Point; you don’t even have it be in the smart class to understand that this was going to have enormous consequences, and now we’re feeling them.”
Photo Credit: Getty Images