Despite recent reports that global warming and extreme weather are continuing to accelerate, Governor Hochul is pushing to roll back the goals in the state’s climate law (Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, CLCPA).
Global warming poses an existential threat to the future of human civilization. While President Biden repeatedly acknowledged this starting in 2020, elected officials increasingly avoid mentioning this threat even as climate change worsens.
A decade ago at the Paris climate summit, the developing countries successfully fought the industrial nations like the United State to reduce the target to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees rather than the two degrees that the CLCPA was based on. The 1.5 degrees target has largely already been breached and even if countries were to meet their existing climate pledges (something that seldom happens), global warming will likely hit at least 2.5 degrees.
New York elected officials, starting with the Governor, are much better at issuing press statements than in providing the day-to-day leadership to accomplish challenging goals. New York lags behind many other states, including Texas, in developing renewable energy. It has been slow to develop offshore wind, even though the area off of Long Island is one of the best sites on the planet. It has done little to improve the state’s transmission and distribution grid, a major roadblock to the development of renewable energy and battery storage.
Green Education and Legal Fund
www.gelfny.org
Media Release
Greens Call for NYS Legislature to Strengthen Climate Action, Enact a Carbon Tax and Reject Hochul’s Proposals to Weaken the CLCPA
The Green Education and Legal Fund (GELF) called today for state lawmakers to reject Governor Hochul’s proposals to weaken the state’s climate law. It called instead for lawmakers to enact a carbon tax as part of the upcoming state budget, as well as to strengthen existing climate laws such as the Build Public Renewables (BPRA) and All Electric Buildings Act.
GELF said lawmakers should include in the state budget at least the $10 billion that the Hochul administration determined was needed annually when it wrote the state’s Climate Action Plan.
Governor Hochul wants to weaken the already inadequate goals in the state’s climate law, pushing back the timeline to regulate carbon emissions to 2030 and weakening the rules around the impact of methane emissions. GELF had taken the lead in drafting the Off Fossil Fuels / 100 Renewables Act by 2030 which was considerably stronger than what became the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).
GELF also helped draft a state carbon tax bill back in 2015. Greens have not supported the cap-and-trade approach, now delayed by Hochul, due to environmental justice concerns and overall ineffectiveness, especially as lawmakers tend to weaken the emission targets in last-minute negotiations.
“With Hochul joining Trump in doing the bidding of the fossil fuel and nuclear industries, it is long past time for the legislature to step up and protect New Yorkers from the existential threat posed by global warming. The first step is for the legislature to enact a carbon tax in this year’s budget, which economists have long agreed is the single most effective way to reduce carbon emissions. And to protect ratepayers from price increases by rebating a significant portion of the revenues back to low- and middle-income households,” stated Mark Dunlea, chair of GELF.
GELF said it agreed with Hochul that it was stupid for her to imply that the state’s climate law is the reason for high utility bills in the state. States that have done a better job in developing renewable energy and energy conservation have lower energy costs.
Public power is also key both to lower energy costs and to speed up the transition to renewable energy, but the Hochul administration has slow-walked the implementation of the BPRA. GELF said the law should be amended to direct the NY Power Authority to begin building at least 20 GW of renewable energy immediately. It would also increase public control over NYPA, such as with the Public Power Democracy Act.
GELF also called for the legislature to pass the remaining parts of the NY Heat Act to ensure that utility bills for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers are capped at 6 percent and to require state agencies like the Public Service Commission to move away from natural gas.
Lawmakers also need to pass various measures to promote the expansion of solar energy, such as the ASAP and SUNNY Acts, and increase the state’s solar tax credit to $10,000.
GELF supports at least $200 million in additional funding for thermal energy projects. It said that the development of geothermal to replace the state’s Sheridan Avenue Steam Plant should be a top priority. The CLCPA requires at least 35% of new state climate fund to go to disadvantaged communities, such as Sheridan Hollow, which the state has polluted for more than a century, burning oil, coal, trash, and now gas to power the Capitol complex.
GELF called on lawmakers to block Hochul’s effort to build 5 new nuclear reactors at a cost of at least $100 billion – and possibly twice as much. It supports the proposal by the Alliance for a Nuclear Free New York for a two-year moratorium on any state funding or subsidies for new nuclear. Lawmakers should also redirect Hochul’s recent $30 billion expanded subsidy for old nuclear plants to renewable energy, battery storage, and conservation, as well as subsidizing residents decarbonization efforts.
The Greens renewed its long standing call for a Green New Deal, combining a ten year transmission to zero emissions and 100% renewable energy with an Economic Bill of Rights for guaranteed living wage jobs and income, single payer universal health care, free public college education, and affordable housing. It supports a Just Transition that protects existing workers and communities while investing in environmental justice.
GELF faulted Hochul for not only trying to weaken the state’s climate law in the budget but also waiting until ten days before the deadline to use an op ed to vaguely outline her proposed changes.
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