Governor Hochul, Climate Failure, Wrongly Named TIME Climate 100 Leader

ALBANY, NY (10/30/2025) (readMedia)-- Today, TIME Magazine named Governor Kathy Hochul as one of its 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders of 2025. The award is not deserved.

In her interview with TIME, Hochul repeatedly claimed to stand up to the Trump administration's assault on renewable energy and proudly declared that New York is "actively fighting pollution and climate change." In response, Julia Walsh, Director at Frack Action, issued the following statement urging the Governor to stand by her word and stop pushing fossil fuel pipelines at the Trump administration's direction:

"Governor Hochul is talking like an environmentalist but acting like a Trump appointee. Rather than actually lead on climate and listen to the science like she says she is, the Governor is pressuring state regulators to approve two massive fracked gas pipelines that would be a disaster for New York - going against New Yorkers just to score some political points with Trump. If the Governor is the climate champion she claims to be, she should respect the State's previous repeated decisions to reject these pipelines and invest in clean, renewable energy that won't destroy our environment."

Fact-checking Gov. Hochul's claims

• According to Governor Hochul: "With the federal government imposing serious roadblocks on renewable energy and rolling back water and other environmental protections, the single most important thing we can do is fight back."
  • In reality: Governor Hochul is hardly fighting back. Back in May, she made a deal with Trump to revive and fast-track the NESE and Constitution fracked gas pipelines. These pipelines were previously, repeatedly denied by New York State because of the harm they'll cause to the environment.
• According to Governor Hochul: "It is critical states band together to push back legally against the harmful federal actions while simultaneously finding ways to move forward with renewables and other emissions-free projects."
  • In reality: The Hochul administration has canceled and stalled several projects that would bring more clean energy to New York State, including the PPTN transmission line and the Clean Path transmission project. She also continues to stall Cap & Invest, defunded a program that helped New Yorkers install rooftop solar, and scaled back the Empower+ program that helps New Yorkers afford energy efficiency upgrades.
• According to Governor Hochul: "Ignoring the science is not an option. Climate change is real. The impacts of extreme weather-fires, droughts, heatwaves, blizzards-are real. Burying, ignoring, or misrepresenting the science will only make it impossible to address the defining environmental issue of our time."
  • In reality: Not even one week ago, a judge ruled against Governor Hochul because she is not implementing New York's nation-leading Climate Law. Instead of accepting the ruling, she said that she would rather change the Climate Law.
• According to Governor Hochul: "But we must address this critical situation in a way that ensures affordability for those paying the rates and grid reliability so the lights and heat stay on."
  • In reality: Governor Hochul continues to perpetuate the myth that fighting climate change is expensive. It's not. Study after study proves that climate-friendly solutions save people money. In fact, fossil fuels are expensive! Maintaining the climate warming fracked gas system is what's expensive - the NESE pipeline alone will add $3 billion to New Yorkers' energy bills.

Background

Neither the NESE or Constitution applications have been amended since they were repeatedly denied by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which means they both still pose the exact same environmental threats to New York. The Constitution pipeline would threaten more than 250 waterways throughout Upstate New York, endangering sensitive habitats and wildlife populations that depend on healthy ecosystems, while the Williams NESE pipeline would stir up toxic contaminants in the New York Harbor that harm critical fisheries and other wildlife habitats.

In addition to serious threats to ecosystems across the State, these pipelines would force regular New Yorkers to pay billions to expand fossil fuel infrastructure that is increasingly unreliable and expensive to maintain. National Grid's own estimates state that the NESE pipeline alone will cost New Yorkers at least $2.2 billion and force ratepayers to pay more than $200 million every year for the next 15 years - though a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) suggests the real cost to New Yorkers is closer to $3.2 billion.