Governor Hochul was globetrotting last week with a trip to Italy to see the Pope and then to her ancestral home in Ireland. The trip to Rome was in her capacity as the newly selected co-chair of the U.S. Climate Alliance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Alliance sent a delegation of governors to meet with the Pope about the worsening climate emergency. Pope Francis\u2019s 2015 encyclical<\/a>, On Care for Our Common Home<\/em>, was a clarion call for action to address the climate crisis based on religious, moral, scientific and self-preservation grounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.S. Climate Alliance is a bipartisan coalition<\/a> of governors working to achieve the nation\u2019s net-zero future by mid-Century, consistent with the call by the world\u2019s climate experts. Governor Hochul was appointed<\/a> co-chair in early May. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In his welcoming comments<\/a>, the Pope said \u201cThe road ahead is uphill and not without danger. The data emerging from this summit have shown that the effects of climate change loom over every aspect of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The conference was organized around keynote addresses by the mayor of Paris and the governors of California and New York. While California is ranked seventh<\/a> in oil production, Governor Newsom used his speech to highlight the state\u2019s strides in shifting toward a reliance on non-fossil fuel power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Governor Newsom said<\/a> \u201cCalifornia has exceeded its nation-leading environmental goals. I come here today on Day 32, 32 straight days, over one month, where California\u2019s economy is literally being run with 100 percent clean energy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like California, New York has set aggressive climate goals. In 2019, then-Governor Cuomo and the state Legislature agreed to a new law<\/a> that set climate goals consistent with the best climate science available at that time. The new law required that state achieve<\/p>\n\n\n\n While laying out an aggressive plan of action, New York is struggling to achieve those climate goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A recent audit<\/a> by New York State Comptroller DiNapoli revealed the state\u2019s slow pace. The audit found it is taking the state more than three years just to get a permit<\/em> in New York to start a Renewable Energy Project. Those delays, the Comptroller said, put the state in jeopardy of not reaching climate goals that were put into law in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to the slow pace, projects are faltering due to rising costs \u2013 exacerbated by a slow permitting process. Last month, it was reported<\/a> that three ambitious projects to build offshore wind farms folded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite that, in her speech at the Vatican Governor Hochul used the state\u2019s climate law as the cornerstone of New York\u2019s strategies and pledged to meet those goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, the DiNapoli audit and the failure of three offshore wind farms make it at best unclear if those goals will be met. The governor chose instead to focus her remarks on climate catastrophes: more intense storms, heat waves, and rising sea levels. She then announced<\/a> nearly $300 million in climate resiliency funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While $300 million is significant, it falls far short of the billions<\/em> needed by the state to address expected climate costs. Moreover, while committing hundreds of millions of dollars, Governor Hochul did not mention that those monies would come from taxpayers<\/em>. It was the governor who blocked<\/a> a legislative budget plan to make the biggest oil companies financially responsible for at least some of the state\u2019s mushrooming climate costs leaving taxpayers on the financial hook. And it was last year that the governor advanced a budget plan to weaken<\/a> New York\u2019s efforts to rein in methane gas emissions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Hochul Administration inherited an aggressive climate plan but is so far not doing enough to meet those goals. Ironically, her appointment to the Climate Alliance and papal visit may lead to some uncomfortable scrutiny of New York\u2019s climate track record. The challenge now is to make the law reality by meeting the goals, withstanding the pressures to backslide, and providing the leadership to overcome the inevitable political, fiscal, and practical obstacles that always arise with undertakings of this magnitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n