{"id":3324,"date":"2026-03-02T09:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T14:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=3324"},"modified":"2026-03-02T09:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T14:34:11","slug":"gov-hochul-threatens-n-y-s-climate-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/gov-hochul-threatens-n-y-s-climate-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Hochul Threatens N.Y.\u2019s Climate Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As long-time observers know, Albany has a budget \u201cdance<\/a>.\u201d The first step is that the governor must introduce<\/a> her executive budget by mid-January; she has until mid-February to make any changes. In late January, the Legislature gets to \u201clead,\u201d as it holds hearings<\/a> to gather additional information on the governor\u2019s budget plans from her agencies and the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the hearings are done, and they finished last week, each House develops its own budget plans based on the governor\u2019s proposal and the feedback from the hearings. New York law requires that both the Senate and Assembly have public meetings to discuss their budget differences and then negotiations with the governor take place to finalize differences. The final product is due<\/a> on March 31st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In New York the governor is in the driver\u2019s seat<\/a> when it comes to cobbling together a budget; the Legislature is a junior partner. In recent years, Governor Hochul has used her power to deliberately make budgets late<\/a> in order to get concessions on other \u2013 usually non-budget<\/a> \u2013 policies that she is advancing. The budget negotiations are held in secret<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week the governor added a new twist: On Thursday, her Administration unveiled a vague proposal<\/a> to change New York\u2019s seven-year-old Climate Law. The governor has expressed her desire to modify the law on numerous occasions, but no proposal was contained in her budget, nor her budget amendments<\/a>, and was announced in informal verbal statements released as the budget hearings were wrapping up. Thus, there was no meaningful way for her proposal to face public scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Administration\u2019s proposal was thrown into the budget \u201cdance\u201d to maximize the secrecy<\/em> of what she intends. It must be underscored that the governor\u2019s office has not<\/em> actually proposed anything concrete, other than some statements that were later backed up by a three-page memo<\/a> arguing that compliance with the Climate Law would cost New Yorkers thousands of dollars in additional energy costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never mind that the governor has been proposing budgets for five years and in this year\u2019s budget there was no plan to make changes. Never mind that her Administration has not released a deeper analysis of the sources for the estimates, methods or calculations in the three-page memo. Never mind that, if the Administration has its way, there will be no<\/em> public scrutiny of the plan until after<\/em> its possible inclusion as part of a secret budget negotiation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what does New York\u2019s Climate Law do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s based on the planet\u2019s worsening climate. 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 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act<\/a> (\u201cClimate Law\u201d) was approved seven years ago and was designed to set the state on a path toward \u201cnet zero\u201d greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of this Century.  The \u201cnet zero\u201d goal is consistent with the <\/a>standard<\/a> set by the world\u2019s climate scientists \u2013 who have warned that in order to avoid the worst consequences of global heating, all nations need to adhere to the net zero goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York\u2019s Climate Law set interim goals designed to guide policymakers as benchmark steps to meet the targets advised<\/a> by the world\u2019s climate experts.  Those interim goals commit the state to generate 70 percent of its electricity from renewable power sources and achieve a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 \u2013 just four years from now.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Climate Law was passed in 2019, the state convened a panel<\/a> of \u201cstakeholders\u201d to arrange an extended public process. Once that process was completed, a \u201cblueprint\u201d of how to proceed was released in 2022.  Yet, once the fanfare of signing the bill passed and the rollout of the blueprint was over, too little<\/a> was done<\/a> to meet the <\/a>challenges set in the Climate Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York\u2019s goals are<\/em> attainable.  For example, Germany, with its cloudy days and cool climate expects to generate<\/a> nearly 15% of its electricity by solar.  While New York State generates<\/a> a paltry 5%. In addition, the European Union has announced<\/a> it expects to meet its 2030 targets of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% compared to 1990 levels and achieving at least 42.5% renewable energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What New York does matters. While the state is a small portion of the world\u2019s population, if it were a nation, it would have the eighth biggest economy<\/a> in the world. What New York does can have huge impacts on the world\u2019s climate approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, instead of proposing to galvanize the state\u2019s so-far-lethargic effort to meet the science-based goals of the Climate Law, apparently the governor wants to back off. What should be done?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Legislature should firmly reject the governor\u2019s move. The governor\u2019s apparent plan is too consequential to get jammed into secret budget negotiations. If the governor wants to propose changes, do it in the light of day outside<\/em> of the budget. New Yorkers have a right to know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As long-time observers know, Albany has a budget \u201cdance.\u201d The first step is that the governor must introduce her executive budget by mid-January; she has until mid-February to make any changes. In late January, the Legislature gets to \u201clead,\u201d as it holds hearings to gather additional information on the governor\u2019s budget plans from her agencies […]<\/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-3324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3324","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=3324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3325,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3324\/revisions\/3325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}