KINGSTON, N.Y. — Several Mid-Hudson climate activist organizations joined more than 100 other statewide in a letter Wednesday calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers to protect the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
The letter, signed Wednesday, Jan. 28, expressed opposition to what the organizations said was New York’s “failing energy vision.”
The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, also known as the Climate Law, is one of the most robust climate laws in the nation. It requires New York to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and by no less than 85% by 2050 from 1990 levels.
Signing on to the letter were Indivisible Ulster, Indivisible New Paltz, Hudson Valley Climate Science and Solutions, the New Paltz Climate Action Coalition, New Paltz Climate Smart Communities, the SUNY New Paltz Environmental Task Force, and Ulster Activists, among other organizations.
The letter called on state lawmakers to implement more renewable energy sources across the state, arguing that current energy policy and infrastructure are not sufficient for the state to reach its goals outlined in the law. The letter cited what the activists said were “failures” of the Hochul administration to implement climate policy.
“In the past year, the Hochul Administration has approved an outrageously expensive gas pipeline project, delayed implementation of the All Electric Buildings Act, failed to keep up with benchmarks of the Climate Law, and has consented to the continued operation of a fossil-fueled, energy intensive, publicly unsupported Bitcoin mining facility in the Finger Lakes,” the letter said.
The All Electric Buildings Act requires new construction of smaller residential and commercial buildings to be all-electric.
The delay of the act’s implementation, as well as the Northeast Supply Enhancement Project pipeline and the Yates County cryptocurrency mine, have been decried by Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha, D-Esopus. Shrestha has argued that Hochul’s actions undermine the state’s climate goals and will force ratepayers to pay more.
The letter cites a 16% increase in electric bills proposed by Western New York utility National Fuel in its opposition to the state’s continued use of fossil fuels.
The letter offered three recommendations to state lawmakers going forward. First, the letter urged lawmakers to follow the Climate Law.
“New York’s law is based on the scientific consensus that the burning of fossil fuels endangers the planet and that the world must wean itself off of such power by the middle of this Century,” the letter said. “Indeed, failure to do so will cost the state more than complying with it. The increasingly likely failure to meet the upcoming Law’s climate goals is a failure of will, not the targets themselves. New York’s goals are attainable.”
The letter also urged lawmakers to focus on what it said were the “least expensive” ways of generating electricity, like solar energy and battery storage. Activists also recommended that lawmakers adopt measures to fight utility rate hikes.
Blair Horner, senior policy advisor for the New York Public Interest Research Group, said in a statement, “The states that have invested the most in renewables over the last 10 years have lower energy prices than New York. It is cheaper and less ecologically destructive to build out solar production than gas facilities.
“New York’s failure to boost solar production contributes to higher energy prices,” Horner added. “Electrifying New York through solar production and battery storage will lead to lower energy prices and is a more appropriate response to the climate crisis, which we have seen is wreaking havoc in communities everywhere.”