NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- Citing concerns about affordability, Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed revising the state’s 2019 climate law, asking to delay regulations to implement it and to adopt a different greenhouse-gas accounting method.
The changes would effectively water down a law viewed as one of the most ambitious state climate policies in the US.
Hochul called the law’s current targets “costly and unattainable” in a statement released Friday. “This is solely out of necessity — to protect New Yorkers’ pocketbooks and economy,” she said.
The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) targets a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2030 and an 85% cut by 2050. As of 2023, New York State had lowered its emissions by about 14%. Meeting the 2030 deadline would drastically drive up energy bills for New Yorkers, Hochul, a Democrat, has said.
Energy bills have surged around the US, partly as a result of AI-driven demand. As of last November, the average residential electricity price in New York was 26.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, ranking eighth highest in the country, according to Empire Center, a nonprofit think tank in Albany. The Iran war has sent oil and gas prices surging.
The proposed weakening of the law comes amid the Trump administration’s dismantling of federal climate regulations and clean energy incentives, which environmentalists have looked to Democrat-led states and cities to counter.
“Lots of people around the country — really around the world — have been looking to see how New York does in implementing this strong climate law,” said Michael Gerrard, a Columbia University law professor who directs the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.
“If a very blue state like New York moves backwards on climate change as well, that’s a negative sign for the country,” he said. “If you can’t do it here, can you do it anywhere?”
Hochul, who is running for reelection this year, is seeking to advance changes through the state’s budget, which is due April 1. The proposal is expected to meet resistance from some Democratic lawmakers.
“We will negotiate with the governor,” said State Senator Pete Harckham, who chairs the body’s environmental conservation committee. “We’ll be able to get to, I think, a resolution of this.”
Policymakers including Harckham and State Senator Liz Krueger, who chairs the finance committee, penned a letter to Hochul earlier this month urging her not to back a delay.
Given Washington’s war on climate policy, they wrote, “it is incumbent on states like New York to reject this new wave of climate denial and put forward bold policies that will save New Yorkers money, reduce pollution and protect a livable climate.”
Business groups and Republicans in Albany have argued that implementing the law as it stands would drive up costs and worsen the affordability crisis. State Senator Tom O’Mara has urged changes. “It is time [to] amend the CLCPA to account for economic realities,” he said in a statement.
The Business Council, representing New York companies, last month said the deadlines stipulated “are proving unachievable.”
In 2025, environmental groups sued Hochul’s administration after the state failed to enact a regulatory program for the climate law.
“What we are focused on is making sure that there isn’t a continued delay to act,” said Rachel Spector, deputy managing attorney at Earthjustice, an environmental law organization. “The state has to issue regulations that implement the law.”
A judge ruled in favor of Earthjustice and the environmental groups in October, putting pressure on Hochul to enact a so-called cap-and-invest program that would help generate revenue for the state to transition to renewable energy.
However, a memo released in February by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority concluded that implementing the policy would result in rocketing energy bills for New Yorkers.
It modeled a scenario where the CLCPA was “implemented with regulations to meet the 2030 targets” and found that upstate New York households relying on oil and natural gas “would see costs in excess of $4,000 a year.”
Many Democrats and environmental advocates have pushed back on the narrative that climate policy is spiking costs. Harckham said the solution to improving affordability and lowering emissions is clear: “It’s renewable energy.”
“We set a law for ourselves,” he added. “We should be held accountable to it.”
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