Pray Kathy Hochul took notes as investors sunk $100 BILLION into Pennsylvania for AI

Let’s hope Gov. Kathy Hochul was paying attention Tuesday as President Donald Trump joined the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh, underscoring his solid commitment to US growth — and prosperity.

Investors are dumping a whopping $100 billion into AI-related initiatives, and New Yorkers would love to get a piece of that — but Hochul’s anti-business policies are getting in the way.

One major lesson from the summit: AI dominance is inextricably linked to energy because servers and data farms require a lot of constant, reliable electricity.

Other industries, too, are highly sensitive to energy prices and reliability.

And states like Pennsylvania understand that economic growth is inseparable from responsible extraction of natural resources, in large part to produce the power industry needs.

That’s why major companies are pouring tens of billions of dollars into the Keystone State’s new AI initiatives.

Yet in New York, if you look across the state line at our neighbor from the economically anemic Southern Tier, it’s hard not to feel a twinge of regret: While the shale revolution has sparked an economic resurgence in Pennsylvania, New York has banned fracking, which is needed to harvest the region’s natural gas.

Since then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo banned fracking in 2015, the Southern Tier has lost out on tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity.

Yet Hochul hasn’t lifted a finger to reverse it; rather, she openly supports depriving New Yorkers of the kind of windfalls Pennsylvanians are enjoying thanks to fracking. (And she plans to run on New York’s “affordability” crisis?)

This is no small-potatoes issue: A study by the Heritage Foundation comparing neighboring counties along the states’ border found that annual household incomes in New York are $27,000 lower than those in Pennsylvania.

That’s a lot of mortgage and car payments.

Indeed, where Trump and Pennsylvania actively encourage business, including in the energy industry, Hochul & Co. never stop looking for ways to discourage it — especially when it comes to energy.

New York has nixed gas hook-ups and pipelines, and its leaders aim to electrify everything, in the farcical hope that renewables (wind and solar power) can one day provide enough juice.

Hochul has even sought to punish energy companies: The “Polluters Pay” law she signed in 2024 actually pins the blame for “heatwaves” and “coastal storms” on companies for the “crime” of selling gas in New York since 2000. (Never mind that it’s always been perfectly legal to do so.)

Those companies must contribute $3 billion per year to a state-run Superfund. (Want some fries with that shakedown?)

Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s similarly sued the energy industry, essentially, for having caused global warming. The case was laughed out of court.

Meanwhile, Hochul’s climate mandates drive up the cost of energy not just for homeowners but companies that need it.

But energy woes aren’t businesses’ only gripe about New York: The state also slaps firms — and their employees — with some of the highest taxes in the nation.

And the Democratic nominee for mayor in New York, Zohran Mamdani, vows to raise them further if elected.

No wonder the Empire State is ranked by the Tax Foundation as second-to-worst for its business climate.

No wonder New York, particularly upstate, suffers while states like Pennsylvania thrive.

Hochul and her fellow Democrats could bring that prosperity to New York in a flash: Just end the fracking ban. Get realistic about fighting climate change. Stop hiking taxes. Ease up on regulations.

Alas, they have no desire to do any of that. The far-lefties, like Mamdani, want just the opposite.

Unless New Yorkers get new leadership, they’ll simply have to sit back and watch in envy as their neighbors prosper — while they don’t.