New York Communities Sound the Alarm: Weakening the Climate Law Threatens Lives, Livelihoods, and Futures
Organizations representing hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers demand climate action, not rollbacks
For Immediate Release: April 30, 2026
Contact: Marie Scarles, marie@nyrenews.org, (646) 389-8429
Web: www.nyrenews.org | Instagram | Twitter | Bluesky | Facebook
New York — Communities across New York are sounding the alarm around proposals to critically roll back our nation-leading climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).
Hundreds of organizations representing hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers have opposed the Governor's attack on the climate law and our future. As we move to this next phase of the budget, where exhaustion and political pressure may lead to legislative leadership bowing to the Governor's will rather than standing firm for their members and their constituents, communities continue to call, email, and rally to demand that state elected leaders not undermine New York’s climate future behind closed doors.
Stephan Edel, Executive Director of NY Renews, said, “What the Governor is demanding is a wholesale retreat from the idea of enforceable, mandated action on climate. This is not a tweak to give the state more time to decide how to lower emissions — it is a fundamental blow that will uphold the fossil fuel status quo and exacerbate harm in frontline, Black, Brown, and low-income communities, leading to even higher energy bills, an ever-more volatile fossil fuel energy system, and more deaths by heatstroke and asthma. Tens of thousands of New Yorkers have contacted their elected leaders in protest of these changes, but the Governor doesn’t seem to be listening.”
All New Yorkers should be watching as our state budget process is held hostage and used to cut protections for our communities. Whether the Governor is listening to fossil fuel lobbyists, major corporate polluters, or her unknown private donors, she is clearly not listening to the people of New York. The Governor’s proposals to gut the CLCPA all amount to the same thing and will:
Further harm people living in disadvantaged communities, who are already overburdened with toxic pollution and suffer from higher rates of asthma and other diseases exacerbated by pollution and extreme heat
Make New York even more dependent on fossil fuel energy, locking ratepayers into price spikes that make life more expensive, rather than lowering energy costs by transitioning to clean, affordable energy
Undermine efforts to hold government accountable at a time when all New Yorkers need the rule of law strengthened
“Our communities in NYC are at the frontlines of climate collapse and pollution, and we didn’t fight hard for this law only to see it get stripped away to nothing behind closed doors,” said Eddie Bautista, Executive Director of NYC Environmental Justice Alliance. “What this reported deal means for our communities is plain: the children of Hunts Point will continue to inhale pollution from trucks that will give them asthma, families in the North Shore of Staten Island to Melrose will be stuck on fossil fuels and indefinitely paying higher energy bills, and people will continue to die in basement floods in Queens. What we’re facing now is a complete dereliction of leadership and responsibility, and the Governor using her outsized power in the budget process to try to get everything she can to make it seem like she’s doing more than she’s willing to do on climate. The precedent this sets is indeed a dark day for New York, our city and nation.”
“The CLCPA was born from decades of organizing by communities that have carried the burdens of environmental racism. Weakening it would deepen those burdens,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, Executive Director of UPROSE. “In Sunset Park, it would threaten the transition away from fossil fuel dependence, jeopardize community-led solutions that build wealth and resilience, and reinforce a model that treats frontline neighborhoods as expendable. Our communities are not asking for permission to survive. We are demanding the full implementation of the law and the just future it was meant to deliver.”
“Across the state, utilities are making record profits — and CEOs are enjoying record pay raises — even as 1 in 7 New York households struggle to afford their energy bills,” said Dawn Wells-Clyburn, Executive Director, PUSH Buffalo. “Governor Hochul claims that by weakening the climate law, she’s giving New Yorkers ‘breathing room’ from higher energy costs. But she’s admitted that the climate law isn’t leading to higher energy bills. Governor Hochul: Destroying the climate law is giving the fossil fuel industry a free pass to bankrupt struggling, post-industrial cities like Buffalo and continue to poison Western New York communities that are already at risk — even in her own back yard, and we won’t forget it.”
"For decades, the Sheridan Hollow neighborhood has suffered from fracked-gas pollution resulting from the Capitol Building and the surrounding state complex. But instead of curbing harmful fossil fuel pollution and the climate crisis, Governor Hochul continues to attack the CLCPA, jeopardizing countless New Yorkers' health and financial well-being for decades to come. Governor Hochul must abandon her efforts to gut the 2019 Climate Law and provide meaningful funding to decarbonize the Capitol Building complex and deploy clean geothermal energy in the surrounding neighborhood, a disadvantaged community under the CLCPA,” said Ethan Gormley, Legislative Coordinator, Citizen Action of New York.
“Governor Hochul’s rollbacks to the CLCPA are a direct attack on the households identified as disadvantaged communities on Long Island,” said Monique Fitzgerald, Climate Justice and Campaigns Director at Long Island Progressive Coalition. “Households and small businesses on Long Island are already struggling with skyrocketing energy prices, sea-level rise, and toxic facilities that pollute our air and land. Permanently weakening the climate law will do nothing to help our communities. Follow the law. Help build a clean energy future that serves the people, not corporate polluters.”
“Advancing New York’s climate law could create thirty thousand jobs each year across regions and sectors to rapidly transition the state to clean energy and strengthen the union workforce,” said Jenille Scott, ALIGN Climate Director. “This means tens of thousands of jobs in heat pump installation, building upgrades, weatherization, electric vehicles, and more. Good, union jobs that help transition the state away from polluting fossil fuels and toward clean, renewable energy are a win-win for our climate and our communities. The Governor and the Legislature must lead in building an equitable energy economy in New York State.”
“The climate crisis has been here: flooding our streets, overwhelming our pockets, harming our neighbors and destroying our communities, while companies rake in profits,” said Daniela Castillo, Green Light District Director (El Puente). “Now is the time to fortify, not weaken or back away from, the Climate Law that paves the way for resilient and just futures guided by transformative visions from those living at the center of it. From neighbors in Los Sures whose lungs have been polluted by the divisive Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, to families in Bushwick facing the dangers of extreme heat and flooding, investments in our community are long overdue. We can no longer allow harmful polluters to continue destroying the health of our communities and environment. We claim our right to determine thriving communities and futures. The full implementation of the CLCPA is the bare minimum of what our neighborhoods deemed as ‘disadvantaged’ have deserved, to truly make legitimate steps towards realizing climate and environmental justice across our state.”
“Kathy Hochul, New York's first ‘Mom Governor,’ is betraying New York families,” said Laurel Tumarkin, Policy Director, Climate Families NYC. “Her work to undercut our climate law will mean higher utility bills, increased healthcare costs, bigger tax bills to repair and rebuild infrastructure, and ballooning insurance costs as homes and businesses are destroyed in disasters. On top of the financial costs is the heavy emotional burden families carry, worrying about the health and safety of their children and elders, at grave risk due to the pollution and extreme weather that fossil fuels deliver. This ‘Mom Governor’ has turned her back on her duty to protect New Yorkers. The Legislature must stand strong and defend our climate law.”
“With Trump at the wheel at the federal level, New York cannot afford to destroy our state climate commitments,” said Katherine Alford, Co-facilitator of Third Act NYC. “Heatwaves are making summers hotter and more dangerous, and our energy bills keep rising as the country deepens its dependence on volatile fossil fuels. The Governor and the State Legislature must not roll back our climate mandates. Doing so will set a precedent for the nation and take New York into an even more dangerous future. Now is the time for New York to lead, not follow the lead of the federal administration.”
“As fossil fuel companies rake in profits, Governor Hochul is trying to weaken and delay one of the key tools we have available to address the energy affordability crisis and transition New York off of dirty oil and gas energy,” said Alan Cole, Climate Liaison, Third Act Upstate NY. “We must uphold the climate law and its promise to help protect frontline communities — not corporate polluters — and deliver thousands of dollars in energy savings to working families and communities living with the twin impacts of the climate and energy affordability crisis.”
“Governor Hochul’s proposed rollbacks to NY’s climate law would raise prices across the Hudson Valley while continuing the slow poisoning of our communities. During a time when our members are wincing every time they pay their utility bills or fill up their tanks, it is disgraceful that the Governor is holding the budget hostage to further enrich her fossil fuel donors,” said Xaver Kandler, Political Director at For the Many. “Let’s be clear, the Governor’s current proposals aren’t ‘tweaks.’ They are a full-throttle attack on our law. We call on the legislature to reject this unacceptable deal.”
“Solar is one of the fastest, most affordable paths to lower energy bills and cut pollution— especially for communities that have long borne the worst burdens of fossil fuel pollution,” said Elena Weissmann, Senior Northeast Regional Director, Vote Solar. “Governor Hochul’s rollbacks would strand that progress and increase household energy bills by giving polluters a free pass. The CLCPA is the roadmap to encourage a cleaner, more affordable energy future, and with federal climate leadership gone, our state decision-makers must hold the line. ”
“The Legislature must not allow Gov. Hochul to undo New York’s climate law behind closed doors — we must address the biggest threat to human security in regular order with open hearings to establish the economic and scientific facts. She has the affordability issue backward, echoing the scare propaganda of fossil corporations. Since NY passed our climate law in 2019, solar plus storage has become the most affordable source of energy as the planet has overheated faster than projected, and the cost of fossil-fueled violent weather has become much worse. The Trump regime pouring oil on the planetary fire makes it imperative that New York lead the other states to a just transition to clean energy, not retreat,” said Mark Schaeffer, People of Albany United for Safe Energy.
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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.