Political operatives with close ties to the Governor’s office tell The Chronicle that Andrew Cuomo is planning to roll out signature energy and environmental legislation. In recent weeks, it has been rumored that Cuomo plans to enter the Democratic Presidential Primary early next year.
Before he does, he plans to roll out what he will be calling “The Green Deal”, perhaps to own an issue that has been popular among progressives and followers of the freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes.
The State Legislature is expected to prioritize spending legislation to address the MTA and NYCHA. Pressing needs for public investment in transit and public housing infrastructure are expected to be in the tens of billions of dollars.
That forces the Governor’s staff — including, we are told, Western New York’s own John Maggiore — to focus on low cost, high visibility efforts that could be packaged into a single piece of legislation capable of passing at the close of the current session. Cuomo badly wants to campaign as ‘the Greenest candidate for President’.
Among the ideas being considered: The New York State Thruway Authority will be instructed to lease, at no cost, all surplus lands inside the Thruway system’s rights of way to local utilities, for the purpose of accommodating large scale wind turbines.
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