FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

July 6, 2022

Contact: info@publicpowerny.org
Aaron Eisenberg, (914)980-9117

Yesterday, Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law three climate bills. These three climate bills were not included in the Climate Can’t Wait package of the eleven most consequential climate bills in Albany this past year. While these three bills she signed are positive steps, to describe them as New York answering the Supreme Court and leading on climate, is gaslighting at its finest.

The facts remain the same: we are at 4% wind and solar across New York with no pathway to meeting our renewables mandate. Substantive other climate bills remain on the Governor’s desk with her being too fearful to sign them into law. Three years after the nation leading Climate and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), New York has signed into law zero bills to implement the legislation. This is not leadership, this is climate arson.

At a time when gas prices, utility bills, and inflation are all surging, New Yorkers are demanding climate action now more than ever. In response to the Supreme Court decisions on abortion rights and gun control, Governor Hochul immediately called for a special session.  Yet, when it comes to the climate crisis, she instead treats it like a joke and a meme. She says that she is “open minded” but does not foresee a special session because they are supposed to be used “in a very rare case.”

Does the Governor not view the Supreme Court’s ruling limiting the federal government’s ability to regulate emissions as important? Does she not understand that the world’s top scientists at the UN’s IPCC have explicitly stated this is an extremely rare historical moment in which we have 30 months to begin our transition to renewable energy or face unprecedented climate calamity? Does she not understand it’s Build or Burn? Clearly, she does not–– yesterday , in her own words,  she said, “there will be time.”

But there will not be time. The time for action is now. Governor Hochul and Assembly Speaker Heastie must call a special session for August 3, the week after the BPRA hearing,  specifically to pass the Build Public Renewables Act. Then she must sign the BPRA and all the outstanding climate bills on her desk. Anything less is climate denial.

For more information please contact us at: info@publicpowerny.org 

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