NY Renews Coalition Responds to Governor Hochul’s Proposal to Weaken New York’s Climate Law
For Immediate Release: March 20, 2025
Contact: Marie Scarles, marie@nyrenews.org, (646) 389-8429
Web: www.nyrenews.org | Instagram | Twitter | Bluesky | Facebook
In response to the news that the Governor is proposing New York delay greenhouse gas emissions regulations to 2030, and extend other climate law requirements, as well as shift the way the state accounts for climate-heating emissions, NY Renews Executive Director Stephan Edel issued the following statement on behalf of the coalition:
NY Renews and its hundreds of organizational members have a simple message: do not manipulate the climate law. Any effort to weaken, delay, or alter New York’s climate law will threaten the health, safety, and affordability of communities across the state. The Governor’s proposal will do nothing to bring down energy bills that are surging because of natural gas costs and utility spending on expensive pipelines.
Delaying deadlines and changing how we account for methane emissions will not magically make fossil fuel energy more affordable or reliable, and it will not ease the challenge of meaningfully implementing the law to lower emissions and save lives. But just because something is hard does not mean it’s impossible, or that the state shouldn’t do it — which it simply hasn’t yet.
The choice before lawmakers is to fully implement the law as it stands and deliver lower energy costs, cleaner air, and good jobs, or to delay it and lock New Yorkers, particularly frontline communities already bearing a disproportionate burden of the crisis, into higher bills, more pollution, worse health, and greater risk.
The state was required to issue regulations to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions in 2024. We are over two years late, and moving this deadline to 2030 would be an egregious error. Our window to meaningfully address the planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions destroying our climate is today, not four or more years from now.
Proposals to change how methane emissions are accounted for are dangerous. Changing the emissions math does not change the pollution. Weakening methane standards is a giveaway to fossil fuel companies, making it so gas appears less harmful on paper while communities pay the price with their health and wallets. New York’s current approach reflects the best available science and captures methane’s 20-year climate impact. That must not be compromised.
Equally concerning is the suggestion that New York push back our climate law deadlines. The administration is already years behind on implementation, and further delays will only increase costs, prolong pollution, and deepen harm, especially in frontline communities.
At its core, the climate law exists to reduce pollution and protect the frontline communities most impacted by the climate crisis. Changing timelines or weakening commitments does not change that long-standing reality. Now is the time for state leadership to step up and get to work. No rollbacks. No accounting tricks. No delays. Just bold investments in climate and clean energy to lower energy costs and benefit the people of New York, both today and tomorrow.
Steering Committee and Coalition Quotes:
“We cannot allow legislative changes to the CLCPA — a law championed by the people and passed by our elected representatives — before the executive even tries to comply with the law,” says Caroline Chen, Director of Environmental Justice at the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. “The lawsuit imposes NO deadlines or reason to justify any change to the law, and if the Governor were serious about wanting more time to do the right thing, DEC can come to the settlement negotiation table and discuss a resolution to the lawsuit. Trying to force the legislature to change the timeline and weaken the law by using the budget as a bargaining chip during budget negotiations is simply wrong. We urge the legislature to stand strong and decline to entertain weakening the CLCPA. What we need is simply the opposite, and that is for the executive to take necessary action to move us to a future that is free of fossil-fuel influence and dependence and thus provide all New Yorkers with affordable and clean energy.”
"Time is up! Every day that Governor Hochul delays and backpeddles is another day that we lose lives and force New Yorkers to make life-altering decisions. Her proposal to rollback the Climate Law in the name of affordability is gaslighting to the extreme. Rather than be accountable for implementing a law that tens of thousands of NYers were responsible for winning in 2019, the Governor has made clear whose side she's on - the fossil fuel industry, gas utilities, and the corporate business lobby in NY. Energy costs are high because gas prices and gas infrastructure are growing more and more expensive every day. Energy will be affordable with prioritization of AND implementation of the Climate Law. Vulnerable members of our community are forced to pay for volatile and dirty energy sources while getting sicker from pollution and struggling to make ends meet. The righteous path to a just and affordable energy system involves accelerating investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy while making corporate polluters pay," said Dawn Wells-Clyburn, Executive Director at PUSH Buffalo.
“By delaying the timelines in the CLCPA, Governor Hochul is consigning communities to paying higher costs to toxic infrastructure, utility greed, and pollution. Instead of using every tool the Governor has at her disposal to reduce energy bills today like cap-and-invest, she wants to keep the status quo of prioritizing billionaires and the fossil fuel industry over communities of color and everyday New Yorkers,” said Eddie Bautista, Executive Director at NYC Environmental Justice Alliance.
“As a plaintiff in the emissions-reduction regulation lawsuit, it is clear that Governor Hochul’s intention to change the deadlines within the 2019 CLCPA is just her latest attempt to buy more time to do even less action. She remains asleep at the wheel as utility bills rise, corporate polluters poison our communities, and the climate crisis worsens. The reason New York is not abiding by the legally required mandates in the CLCPA is because of Governor Hochul’s failure in leadership and her lack of seriousness in defending New Yorkers from the fossil fuel billionaires,” said Ethan Gormley, Climate Justice Organizer, Citizen Action of New York.
“Governor Hochul is pitching a false choice between affordability and public health, and it’s a lose-lose for New Yorkers. We’re in this position because the Governor dragged her feet on funding and implementing NY’s Climate Law, and more delays and changes only let Big Oil off the hook. We have answers for affordability — tax the rich, make polluters pay with a proper Cap and Invest program, and fund green energy solutions to create thousands of family-sustaining jobs. This is a question of political will and a choice between greedy fossil fuel corporations and the Black, brown, and immigrant New Yorkers facing sickness and death our climate crisis has wrought. New Yorkers are tired of fighting for the right to health, safety, and stability. We expect good-faith action to meet the mandates for our survival, and that starts with keeping our Climate Law intact,” said Jenille Scott, Climate Director at ALIGN.
“New York's landmark climate law is the result of a thoughtful process, backed by science, and with the input of a broad range of constituencies. It seeks to protect the health, lives, and wallets of New Yorkers and put our interests ahead of fossil fuel industry profits. The Governor now wants to gut that law, putting New Yorkers — and children, especially — at risk. She expects us to simply swallow the lie that she has no choice, and that she is doing this to keep New York affordable. Gas, and the gas system's massive, aging infrastructure, is expensive; solar is cheap. Instead of shredding the law that will help make this state healthier, safer, and more affordable for New York families, the Governor should double down on renewable energy. If she wants to be a real ‘Mom Governor,’ she'll uphold the promise of the CLCPA for New York kids, quit the excuses, and get to work on solutions,” said Laurel Tumarkin, Policy Director at Climate Families NYC.
“New York has one of the largest budgets in the world and has passed one of the most proactive climate laws in the country. We have the budget to meet the mandates of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). We just need Governor Hochul to choose families and communities over the fossil fuel industry,” said Monique Fitzgerald, Climate Justice and Campaigns Director at Long Island Progressive Coalition. “Hochul owes full funding and full implementation of the CLCPA to everyone living in New York, including the children living in disadvantaged communities living with asthma, folks struggling to pay their utilities after countless rate hikes, those we lost living in basement apartments during flooding, or folks we lost in an extreme heat event. Governor Hochul, the law is not a choice; follow it. Our lives depend on it.”
“Instead of proposing investments to lower utility bills and meet our climate mandates—like the Senate and Assembly have with their $1 billion investment in the Sustainable Future Program—the Governor is pushing for more dependency on volatile, harmful fossil fuels. The irony that Governor Hochul is making this proposal while oil and natural gas prices spike, after New Yorkers have just paid enormous sums to heat their homes this winter, is not lost upon the millions of us looking to her for leadership, not caving to utilities and oil companies,” said Xaver Kandler, Political Director at For the Many.
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NY Renews is a coalition of nearly 400 climate, labor, youth, and community groups, and the force behind the nation’s most progressive climate law. We fight for clean energy, good jobs, and a healthier, more affordable New York.