Last week, state lawmakers wrapped up the\n2019 legislative session and it represented a big change from what New Yorkers\nhave seen in the recent past. Sweeping\nchanges to the state\u2019s law regulating home rental apartments, an impressive\nexpansion in the state\u2019s voting laws, decriminalization of marijuana\npossession, and other important issues were approved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it wasn\u2019t just a list of big policy\nchanges, the sheer volume of lawmakers\u2019 work showed a dramatic uptick in\nproduction. For example, the number of\nbills that were approved by both houses jumped over 50 percent from last year\nand represented the highest total in well over a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why? \nHaving one political party dominating the state\u2019s political\nestablishment is the main reason. \nDemocrats have large majorities in both the state Senate and the state\nAssembly and coupled with a Democrat in the governor\u2019s mansion, makes it much\nmore likely that legislation can get done. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the important issues that was\naddressed was global warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of the session, the governor and\nstate lawmakers agreed on a bill that is considered one of the most ambitious\nin the fight against climate catastrophe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The key provisions of the legislation are\nclear: electric power production must be carbon free by 2040, an 85% reduction\nin the emission of greenhouse gas pollution by 2050, with the other 15% offset\nby qualifying carbon offset projects, like forest restoration, preservation of\ncarbon sinks, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How will these goals be accomplished? The legislation leaves the detailed decisions\nto a \u201cclimate action council.\u201d The\ncouncil will consist of 22 members and they will have a couple of years to make\nthe technical decisions on how New York will transition to a carbon-free\neconomy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no denying that action is\nneeded. According to the world\u2019s\nexperts, unless actions are taken in the next decade, the world may face a\ncatastrophic collapse in its environment that will lead to misery for billions\nof people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world\u2019s experts agree that action needs to\nbe taken to move to the world to an economy that does not rely on power from\nthe burning of fossil fuels by the year 2050, or the most dire warnings of\nenvironmental catastrophes will come true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United States must play a leadership role\nin following the science and re-organizing the world\u2019s economy based on the use\nof non-fossil fuel to one that relies on renewable, power \u2013 like solar, wind\nand geothermal sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the U.S. has a moral obligation to lead\nas well. The United States is one of the world\u2019s leading emitters of greenhouse\ngases \u2013 the stuff that is keeping the heat in the atmosphere and fueling global\nwarming. The U.S. is also the world\u2019s\nleading economy, so its actions matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the President refuses to \u201cbelieve\u201d in\nbasic science and the result is gridlock on needed actions. Thus, states like California and New York\nmust lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If New York was a nation, it would be one of\nthe largest economies in the world. \nCombined with actions in California \u2013 with a state-based economy that is\nlarger than New York\u2019s \u2013 policies to begin the shift to renewable power would\nshow the nation how it can achieve a carbon-free future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s why the action last week was so\nimportant. Approval of sweeping\nlegislation to respond to the looming climate catastrophe is exactly the\nleadership needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there are lots of questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the past, New York\u2019s political leadership\nhave made promises of shifting the state\u2019s power systems from fossil\nfuel-powered to renewable power. \nPromises that sounded good at the time, but never came close to being\nachieved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking the steps to achieve the goals of this\nlegislation is something that New Yorkers must closely monitor. If they are to succeed, the changes that will\nbe necessary under this legislation must have broad public support. The\ngovernor\u2019s office must ensure that detailed annual public reports are issued\ndocumenting the progress being made, the legislature must hold public hearings\nto closely examine those reports, and the public must stay informed to ensure\nthat the state\u2019s leadership feels accountable for their actions \u2013 or inactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Changing the trajectory of the climate is an\nimmense task – one state alone simply cannot make much of a dent in what is\nhappening worldwide. But change must\nstart somewhere. If not us, who? If not now, when? By developing the policies\nto avert economic and environmental collapse, New York can show the nation what\ncan be done and how the United States must lead the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week, state lawmakers wrapped up the 2019 legislative session and it represented a big change from what New Yorkers have seen in the recent past. Sweeping changes to the state\u2019s law regulating home rental apartments, an impressive expansion in the state\u2019s voting laws, decriminalization of marijuana possession, and other important issues were approved. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2263,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262\/revisions\/2263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}