As Part of Global Climate Strike, Greens Call for NYS Budget to Include Strong Climate Action
Statement of Mark Dunlea, Green Education and Legal Fund, at Global Climate Strike Rally by Fridays For Future at State Capitol on Friday, April 11 (2 PM West Capitol Park). dunleamark@aol.com, 518 860-3725, http://www.gelfny.org
With President Trump having declared war on the transition to clean, renewable energy, it is critical that state lawmakers and Governor Hochul reverse course and include major climate measures in the state budget, starting with NY Heat, GAP, and the Renewable Capitol Act.
As UN Secretary General António Guterres has repeatedly warned, the slow action by governments to address global warming has opened up the Gates of Hell.
The global temperature rise breached the 1.5 degrees Celsius target for much of the last 2 years and destructive extreme weather continues to intensify globally. Many politicians are now talking about retreating to a goal of a cap of 2.5 degrees, which would lock in climate chaos. France recently estimated that global warming at the present pace will hit 4 degrees C by the end of the century.
GELF has long advocated for much stronger greenhouse reduction goals than presently in the state’s climate law, at least to the level that was adopted by the Biden administration (50 – 52% reduction by 2030, 61 percent-66 percent reduction by 2035). GELF had drafted legislation before the CLCPA was passed to set a goal of 100% renewable energy, zero emissions by 2030.
It is especially perplexing that when Governor Hochul says she is focused on affordability, she has opposed the NY Heat Act, which would cap utility bills at 6% for low-income New Yorkers while reducing the massive subsidies for gas. She has delayed implementation of her already tepid cap-trade-and invest proposal which is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet the state’s inadequate targets while helping to raise the more than $10 billion annually the state has said is needed to fund the transition to renewable energy. This reflect that principle that polluters, not taxpayers, should pay for the damage caused by the fossil fuel industry. There also needs to be a robust rebate of the revenues to New Yorkers to offset energy price increases.
The Stop Climate Polluter Handout Act would eliminate over $330 million in tax handouts to the fossil fuel industry.
Another critical aspect of affordability is to provide funding to New Yorkers to decarbonize buildings, such as helping to pay for heat pumps, geothermal, and energy efficiency measures. The GAP Fund would establish a green affordable pre-electrification (GAP) program to fund and provide technical assistance for homes and buildings in need of a wide range of currently unfunded retrofits that are necessary for healthy buildings and achievement of New York’s climate mandates.
Another climate initiative is Bucks for Boilers. Starting in 2030 for smaller buildings and 2035 for larger ones, it provides necessary subsidies to households to repair and weatherize their homes and upgrade to higher efficiency and clean heat pumps, phasing out old gas-fueled boilers when the system needs replacement. It authorizes $50,000 per household and offers upfront full-coverage subsidies to low and moderate-income households.
The Renewable Capitol Act requires ensure that all operations that power, heat or cool state buildings in downtown Albany including the Empire State Plaza and the Capitol transition to renewable systems within three years. For more than a century, the state-owned Sheridan Ave. Steam Plant has polluted a low-income community of color by burning oil, coal, trash and now gas, leading to high rates of asthma, cancer, and other health problems for local resident.
GELF also opposes the Governor’s push for false climate solutions such as new nuclear power plants, hydrogen, and biofuels. It supports the call by Fridays for Future for the State Comptroller to fully divest from fossil fuels and to stop buying Israeli bonds until the country stops its genocide in Gaza.
In calling for the Global Climate Strike, Fridays for Future US stated: “These are unprecedented times. Now is the time to turn resistance into results — to confront the fossil fuel industry’s grip on our government and demand an end to the destruction it causes. Our federal laws, workers, environmental protections, and human rights are all being callously discarded in one fell swoop. The oil industry and other major polluters have deep influence over Donald Trump, using their money to make their voices the loudest ones in national decision-making processes. Officials in Washington, D.C. are prioritizing personal profit over people. But the erosion of federal protections does not erase our rights or reduce the urgency of the moment. Resistance is not only possible — it is necessary. Every new oil and gas project locks us into further catastrophe. Every rollback of protections pushes frontline communities closer to collapse. But we are not powerless.”