Blakeman pledges to lift fracking ban and attacks Hochul's data-center moratorium in Central NY swing
Backfill: coverage of Blakeman's Jul 18 Central NY swing (Van Buren, Onondaga County) finally surfaced via syracuse.com (published Jul 20, syndicated via TNS). Blakeman said data centers "could bring jobs and lower energy costs" if developers build their own power generation and water recirculation systems, and attacked Hochul's statewide data-center moratorium: "Waving the white flag, as Kathy Hochul has done, is the reason why we're No. 50 in economic outlook in the whole United States of America." He also pledged to lift New York's hydraulic-fracturing ban, called the state's clean-energy policies a "green energy scam," and said Trump told him to "drill, baby, drill." Campaigned alongside LG candidate Todd Hood and NY-22 challenger Kailee Buller. This is the first on-record Blakeman counter-position to EO 62 and the first explicit fracking-ban repeal pledge of the campaign.