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Climate Defiance and New York Communities for Change organized the Tuesday demonstration, blocking the entrance to Hochul\u2019s second-floor Capitol office. They demanded that the governor stop trying to rewrite, roll back, or delay the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act<\/a> during ongoing budget negotiations.<\/p>\n Protesters warned that softening the CLCPA would trap New York in the expensive fossil fuel market, pointing to soaring gas prices driven by international conflicts. They chanted and held signs reading \u201cTrump <3 Hochul\u201d and \u201cHormuz Hochul\u201d\u2014referencing the Strait of Hormuz, the major global oil shipping chokepoint at issue as President Donald Trump wars with Iran.<\/p>\n \t When state troopers ordered the crowd to disperse, 18 refused. They were arrested just before 1 p.m. and charged with second-degree obstructing governmental administration, a class A misdemeanor.<\/p>\n \t All of those arrested were New Yorkers, except for Michael Greenberg, founder and executive director of Climate Defiance. He called out the governor for weakening limits on methane pollution, accusing her of adopting a fossil fuel agenda<\/a> and rewarding the fossil fuel lobby.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in a climate emergency, and we don\u2019t have time to wait,\u201d Greenberg said moments before his arrest. \u201cWe are going to shut down the whole governor\u2019s office until we get what we need, which is air we can breathe, water we can drink, and a climate that is habitable to human beings. That is not asking too much.\u201d<\/p>\n \t According to the governor, she is just trying to lower utility bills for New Yorkers. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority projected that the climate law could increase annual heating bills<\/a> by $4,000 upstate and by $2,300 around New York City.<\/p>\n Per Hochul, following the CLCPA as written would also threaten grid reliability. Her administration has pointed to inflation, supply chain disruptions, and lacking federal support for clean energy to justify delayed deadlines and methane calculations.<\/p>\n \t About two hours before the protesters were arrested, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and five of her fellow Democratic State Senators convened down the hall for a press conference about air quality, solar panels, and toxic chemicals. Asked about about climate protesters dubbing the governor \u201cHormuz Hochul,\u201d Stewart-Cousins said, \u201cI\u2019m never anybody who is in support of degrading people or minimizing big issues into small little soundbites.\u201d<\/p>\n Their environmental agenda linked directly to the late state budget<\/a>. Stewart-Cousins confirmed that she, Hochul, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie closer to agreeing on the CLCPA, alongside other sticky issues like the State Environmental Quality Review Act and a pied-a-terre tax in New York City. She also mentioned alterations for school funding formulas and finalizing criminal justice reforms.<\/p>\n \t ASC said the state has to balance sustainability goals with economic reality. So, her caucus championed a slate of legislation concerning pollution and clean energy. First up, the package included the ASAP Act<\/a>\u2014S6570A<\/a>\/A8758A<\/a> from Sen. Pete Harkcham and Assemblymember Didi Barrett\u2014which would mandate upgrades to the utility grid and set a statewide target of 20 gigawatts of distributed solar power by 2035. The measure could pair with utility reforms and consumer safety bills<\/a> backed by the Senate last week.<\/p>\n In the video below, Harckham explained why New York lawmakers have to step up to protect the environment and combat pollution, as the federal government abandons climate responsibilities:<\/p>\n \t Senator Lea Webb sponsored the Beauty Justice Act, S2057B<\/a>\/A2054B<\/a> to restrict lead and heavy metals in makeup. In the video below, she explained the urgent need to remove toxic, undisclosed chemicals from those everyday personal care products:<\/p>\n \t Senator Patricia Fahy advanced a bill, S9268A<\/a>, banning per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, from anti-fogging sprays and wipes. In the video below, Fahy argued that exposure to a single pump of chemical anti-fogger can be worse than drinking a liter of PFAS-contaminated water:<\/p>\n \t Another measure, S1833A<\/a> from Senator Rachel May<\/a>, creates a central database and grant program to track and combat toxic algal blooms poisoning her district. In the video below, she outlined how the algae threaten drinking water, tourism, and recreation across the Finger Lakes:<\/p>\n \t Senator Brian Kavanagh pushed his mattress recycling legislation, S1463A<\/a>\/A1209A<\/a>. The bill would force mattress manufacturers to pay for a free, statewide mattress collection network. He estimated that over a million old mattresses end up in landfills or incinerators every year, releasing greenhouse gases and wasting reusable materials.<\/p>\n And, though absent from the press conference, Senator Liz Krueger\u2019s S1574A<\/a>\/A2657A<\/a> would offer rebates to landscaping businesses, schools, and local governments who buy electric landscaping equipment. Harckham fielded questions on that bill, talking about its financial incentives for landscapers and how the pollution from two-stroke gas engines on equipment like leaf blowers is worse than a pickup truck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Tuesday, 18 climate activists were arrested outside the governor’s office in New York, while State Senate Democrats…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6746,81403,3087,19675,101,81404,81405,57422,81406,19588,81407,7443,81408,81409,11388,62080,81410,12051,53013,81411,3242,81412,37711,19523,10639,34,81413,81414,81415,1984,426,78065,81416,9,69207,11,10,747,10080,81417,81418,81419,81420,81421,81422,58729,81423,26797],"class_list":{"0":"post-205408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-activism","9":"tag-activists","10":"tag-advocacy","11":"tag-andrea-stewart-cousins","12":"tag-arrest","13":"tag-arrests-for-climate","14":"tag-asap-act","15":"tag-beauty-justice-act","16":"tag-brian-kavanagh","17":"tag-clcpa","18":"tag-climate-activists","19":"tag-climate-change","20":"tag-climate-change-activists","21":"tag-climate-defiance","22":"tag-climate-emergency","23":"tag-climate-law","24":"tag-climate-leadership","25":"tag-climate-leadership-and-community-protection-act","26":"tag-earth-day","27":"tag-emerita-torres","28":"tag-environment","29":"tag-environmental-bills","30":"tag-environmentalism","31":"tag-fossil-fuel","32":"tag-fossil-fuels","33":"tag-governor-hochul","34":"tag-governors-office","35":"tag-green-energy-ny","36":"tag-harmful-algal-bloom-monitoring-and-prevention-act","37":"tag-hochul","38":"tag-kathy-hochul","39":"tag-lea-webb","40":"tag-michael-greenberg","41":"tag-new-york","42":"tag-new-york-communities-for-change","43":"tag-new-york-headlines","44":"tag-new-york-news","45":"tag-new-york-state-police","46":"tag-new-york-state-trooper","47":"tag-obstructing-governmental-administration","48":"tag-pat-fahy","49":"tag-pete-harkcham","50":"tag-pfas","51":"tag-rachel-may","52":"tag-senator-pete-harkcham","53":"tag-seqra","54":"tag-state-environmental-quality-review-act","55":"tag-utility-bills"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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New York State Police at the Capitol brush aside the signs of arrested climate protestors, April 21, 2026.<\/p>\n
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