{"id":3170,"date":"2025-04-14T08:04:43","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T12:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=3170"},"modified":"2025-04-14T08:04:43","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T12:04:43","slug":"while-albany-sleeps-trump-acts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/while-albany-sleeps-trump-acts\/","title":{"rendered":"While Albany Sleeps, Trump Acts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Governor Hochul and state lawmakers continued to haggle over a state budget, now two weeks overdue, and ended up approving<\/a> a fourth budget extender last week. Albany\u2019s sleepwalking approach to budget-making stood in stark contrast to the flurry of action from the Trump Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of last week, President Trump had signed<\/a> 116 executive orders, a record<\/a> for a new president. Many were no more than press releases seemingly designed to impact the media cycle. One that puts a bullseye on New York was issued<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a sweeping broadside statement<\/a>, the President ordered<\/a> the U.S. Attorney to \u201cstop the enforcement of State laws\u201d on climate change that the administration says are unconstitutional, unenforceable or preempted by federal laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It directs<\/a> the U.S. Attorney General to target state laws on carbon taxes and fees, as well as state laws mentioning terms like \u201cenvironmental justice\u201d and \u201cgreenhouse gas emissions.\u201d The order directs the AG to \u201cexpeditiously take all appropriate action to stop the enforcement of State laws and continuation of civil actions \u2026 that the Attorney General determines to be illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within 60 days, the order says, the Attorney General will report on the actions taken against state climate laws and recommend other actions from the president or Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The executive order clearly goes after state programs designed to combat climate change and it was merely one of the Administration\u2019s efforts to undermine science-based policies. The Administration cut funding and staff<\/a> for Flagship Climate Report<\/a>, which examines the growing climate disaster and its report is required by Congress. The Administration also announced a plan for deep cuts<\/a> to the E.P.A.\u2019s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, which requires disclosures by large companies that emit air pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of these feverish actions ignore science. Let\u2019s start with the obvious: The planet is heating up and 2024 was the world\u2019s hottest<\/a> year in recorded history. The world\u2019s climate scientists have agreed<\/a> that \u201cHuman activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming\u201d and that \u201climiting human-caused global warming requires net zero CO2<\/sub> emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state policies targeted by the Administration are designed to follow the best science on mitigating a worsening human-induced catastrophe. As we all know, the President thinks otherwise. He\u2019s long dismissed<\/a> climate change as a hoax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, despite his belief<\/em>, science tells us that global greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase and with that the heating up of the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legal experts have dismissed<\/a> the Administration\u2019s executive order as unconstitutional. Governor Hochul agreed and joined her co-leader of the U.S. Climate Alliance<\/a> in a joint statement<\/a> saying, \u201cThe federal government cannot unilaterally strip states\u2019 independent constitutional authority\u201d and that \u201cWe are a nation of states \u2014 and laws \u2014 and we will not be deterred.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the many targets of the Trump Administration\u2019s executive order is that it attempts to torpedo New York\u2019s landmark Climate Change Superfund Act<\/a>.  The Act was approved to mitigate the costs to state taxpayers resulting from the damage caused by the ongoing climate catastrophe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York\u2019s recently enacted Climate Superfund is crafted to ensure that state and local taxpayers are not <\/em>on the financial hook for 100% of the damages caused by severe storms, rising sea levels, and hotter temperatures.  Currently, New Yorkers are paying billions<\/u><\/a> in climate-related damages.  There is <\/u>zero<\/em><\/u><\/a> doubt that those costs will continue to rise for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The costs will be staggering, yet they are costs that must be paid.  The Climate Superfund requires the largest oil companies \u2013 those most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions \u2013 to pay New York $3 billion annually for each of the next 25 years to offset these costs. And it does so in a way that ensures that the companies <\/em>cannot<\/u><\/em> pass these costs on to the public.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Trump Administration\u2019s executive order is successful, that annual $3 billion assessment will be borne by state and local taxpayers \u2013 either through increases in taxes or draconian cuts to government-provided services. Since these climate costs have to<\/em> be paid, the question is should the public pay all<\/em> of the costs?  New York\u2019s law says polluters should pay their fair share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the narrow House majority<\/a> in the U.S. Congress, the seven New York Republican Representatives can play a key role<\/a> in deciding the fate of the state\u2019s efforts to follow climate science and protect taxpayers. They can urge the president to lay off New York\u2019s climate policies, including the Climate Superfund. Whether they choose to do so, only time will tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governor Hochul and state lawmakers continued to haggle over a state budget, now two weeks overdue, and ended up approving a fourth budget extender last week. Albany\u2019s sleepwalking approach to budget-making stood in stark contrast to the flurry of action from the Trump Administration. By the end of last week, President Trump had signed 116 […]<\/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-3170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170","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=3170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3171,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions\/3171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}