Gov: I’ll stop offshore drilling

Gov. Cuomo vowed on Friday to “lead a citizen fleet” to stop oil and gas drilling off New York’s coast as he proposed a new state law to ban the practice.

“I’m going to commission the citizen fleet from throughout the state to go out and interfere with their federal effort just as Winston Churchill did in Dunkirk,” Cuomo said at a press conference in Battery Park overlooking New York Harbor. “If you think I’m kidding, I’m not, and I’m going to lead that citizen fleet.”

Cuomo, who is facing a Democratic primary challenge from left-leaning Cynthia Nixon, challenged the GOP-led state Senate to help enact his proposed ban. Seven GOP senators represent the coastal communities of Long Island.

“We need the state Senate to take it up so that people have a right to know where they stand. The state Senate is very good at not putting the bill on the floor which means nobody has to take a position,” he said.

“Hiding doesn’t work and hiding especially doesn’t work on a bill as im- portant as this one.”

The new law would bar leases for oil and gas exploration or production in New York waters, including off Long Island, New York City and in the Hudson River.

The governor complained the Trump administration has a double standard because it exempted Florida’s coastal waters from the ban after elected officials there complained.