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Assembly Speaker says PCB Dredging Should be Part of Any Talks with GE

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie with Asemblywoman Carrie Woerner, speaking to reporters after touring Hudson River boat lauch in Mechanicville
Karen DeWitt
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie with Asemblywoman Carrie Woerner, speaking to reporters after touring Hudson River boat lauch in Mechanicville

The Speaker of the State Assembly says  any talks about convincing GE executives  to relocate their headquarters back to New York should include discussions on the company’s superfund clean up of PCB’s in the Hudson River that’s about to end.

Governor Cuomo has been talking to GE executives , trying to lure the company’s corporate headquarters back to New York, according to a report by Politico New York.

Assembly Speaker  Carl Heastie, toured the upper Hudson River , near where General Electric has been required by the EPA to dredge potentially toxic PCB’s from the River. The project is due to finish this fall, but some environmental groups and local government leaders want it to be expanded. Speaker Heastie says further clean up of the river should be part of any talks aimed at winning GE’s top executives back to New York State.

“I believe that companies should be good corporate citizens,” Heastie said. “What they need to do here should be part of any discussion.”

The governor’s office had no comment.

The Assembly Speaker, who replaced Sheldon Silver after Silver was arrested for corruption last January, is on an upstate tour.