Why New York's Governor Is Sinking Her Own Climate Policy

Stephan Edel, the executive director of NY Renews, a coalition of more than 300 environmental groups, said that the NYSERDA memo relied on a cost per allowance that no one ever put forward. The authors assume the lowest price of emitting carbon would be $120 per ton. However, this is wildly above the price in other states. Under California’s cap-and-invest program, for example, an allowance is $30 per ton. 

“The level of misinformation is really extreme,” Edel said. “It strikes many of us as disingenuous to be fighting this fight during an election year when the deadline is years out and [the governor is] trying to hold the legislature hostage on key pieces of the budget to get her way.”

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