HERE'S EVERYTHING HOCHUL HAS DONE TO ACCELERATE CLIMATE CHANGE AND RAISE NEW YORKERS' ENERGY BILLS

ALBANY, NY (04/23/2026) (readMedia)-- This morning, Governor Hochul published a deceptive defense of her campaign to double down on fossil fuels and keep New Yorkers' bills high, claiming that "no governor in modern times has done more to protect the environment than I have." She writes that New York's climate law "was passed before the return of climate change denier Donald Trump to the White House," which is a wildly misleading way to phrase "it was passed the first time Trump was in office." In the piece, she continues to blame Trump and advocates for her failures. Earthjustice already debunked those claims, including the reason that advocates' lawsuit was the reason she must roll back the CLCPA. That is patently not true.

"Governor Hochul's administration was sued for violating the law by failing to act, so she wants to change the law so that she can continue doing nothing. The lawsuit, however, compels her to action, not perfection, and there are many ways for Governor Hochul to take action that she is not taking. The repeated claim that somehow the lawsuit is forcing her hand, when we have openly stated that we want to work with her toward a solution, is patently false. The legislature understands this, Governor Hochul somehow doesn't," said Rachel Spector, Deputy Managing Attorney at Earthjustice.

"This isn't about ideology, this is about practicality. The Climate Law was enacted because of a real-world need to move off of the expensive, outdated fossil fuel status quo. Governor Hochul claims to be fighting for the public, but her proposal amounts to doing nothing as gas prices go up exponentially due to Trump's war and his administration's pro-fossil fuel position. The Governor and her spokesman try desperately to insist otherwise, instead manufacturing a crisis rather than doing anything to help the 1 in 4 New Yorkers struggling to afford skyrocketing gas and energy prices," said Liz Moran, New York Policy Advocate at Earthjustice.

The many ways that Governor Hochul could take action are listed below and here.

But Hochul's climate failures aren't just that she evades responsibility and plays the blame game instead of making any concerted effort to implement the climate law. Since she became governor, she has actively undone positive climate policies and canceled billions in necessary investments that would have fought climate change and lowered New Yorkers' energy bills.

Here's a nearly exhaustive list:

• Hochul forces state to greenlight NESE pipeline after making a deal with Trump, despite state regulators having previously rejected it three times. She then skipped out on MAGA's celebratory groundbreaking.
• Hochul pre-emptively delays New York's all-electric building law, caving to lawsuit from gas and construction groups
• Hochul approves air permit for infamous Greenidge cryptomining plant, after her own state agency previously denied it
• Hochul's hand-picked NYPA chair cuts 1.5GW from final public renewables plan despite overwhelming pushback, paving way for more fossil fuel development
• Hochul cancels NYC PPTN (offshore wind transmission line)
• Hochul cancels Clean Path transmission project
• Hochul sued for backing down on CLCPA
• Hochul violates CLCPA by failing to promulgate regulations within five years of the law's passage after delaying the Cap and Invest program
• Hochul adopts an "all of the above" approach to energy generation in the 2026 draft energy plan, which includes more gas production.
• Hochul defunds the NYSUN program, which provided funding for rooftop solar installation
• Hochul rolls back the Empower+ program, which helps more than 70,000 low-income households lower their energy bills
• Hochul moves forward with development of advanced nuclear generation, ordering NYPA to develop 1GW of nuclear energy
• Hochul decides to cancel renewable energy generation contracts that asked for increases due to inflation / supply chain congestion
• Hochul delays and then rolls back tolls for congestion pricing
• Back in 2023, Hochul made her first attempt to roll back how the state accounts for methane emissions under the climate law, which would make gas appear cleaner overnight
• Hochul energy plan caters to corporate-owned AI data centers that will drive up energy use and bills, potentially prolonging fossil fuel generation. Despite claiming she wants data centers to pay their fair share, she has yet to propose any real policy to require it.
• Hochul increasingly relying on proposed nuclear plants that, even if built, would not go online for a decade or more, even if she has supposedly cut a deal with Trump to avoid red tape around them
• Hochul approved the state's first major fossil fuel project in ten years: Iroquois Pipeline Company's proposal to increase the capacity of polluting compressor stations in Athens and in Dover and expand the amount of fracked gas transported to New York City.

Here are the facts:

• Hochul's myth: "It also was passed before the return of climate change denier Donald Trump to the White House."
  • The truth: The CLCPA was passed in 2019 during Trump 1.0 to protect New Yorkers against Trump's pro-fossil fuel administration accelerating climate change and jacking up energy prices. Now, during Trump 2.0 he's raising prices even more. But instead of using the tool Hochul already has to protect New Yorkers, she is trying to roll it back and do nothing.
• Hochul's myth: "I have yet to hear how we are supposed to move forward without changes to the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act when we are up against a president who has vowed to block all new offshore wind projects and has repeatedly tried to kill the ones already under construction, including two here in New York."
  • The truth: There are numerous ways Hochul could move New York closer toward the goals of the climate law, including tools that governors of other states, red and blue, are employing right now, under Trump. See them here and listed below.
• Hochul's myth: "I have fought back at every turn. I protected our offshore wind projects. I defended congestion pricing. And when I was pressured to allow fracking in New York, I said no."
  • The truth: We'll give Hochul her props for successfully defending our offshore wind projects. But "fought back at every turn?" See the list above. And the fracking ban is law in New York, which the governor cannot simply and unilaterally overturn, no matter what Trump wants or Hochul says.
• Hochul's myth: "If we do not win our appeal and we do nothing to change the law, the outcome is clear: higher energy bills. Higher costs passed down to families. A grid stretched too thin."
  • The truth: The status quo is already raising energy bills, passing down higher costs to families, and stretching the grid too thin. The climate law is the best tool we have to reduce energy bills and downstream costs and upgrade the grid. Governor Hochul has broad discretion to choose how to implement the CLCPA, and no costs will automatically be imposed under any court ruling. See below or here for numerous examples of how Governor Hochul could do this.
• Hochul's myth: "That is why I am working with the Legislature to make targeted, common-sense updates to the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Not to walk away from our targets, but to make sure we reach them. Not to lower our ambition, but to make sure we can reach it."
  • The truth: The legislature understands that Hochul's proposals amount to her doing nothing at all. Hochul's proposal to change the methane accounting formula is literally lowering ambition.
• Hochul's myth: "Other states are confronting the same reality. They are adjusting because they understand the path to success is not a straight line."
  • The truth: Many other states, blue and red, are making positive climate progress. Again, see below or here.

Here's where we are now. As Governor Hochul doubles down on fossil fuels, New Yorkers are paying record-breaking prices and oil companies are making record-breaking profits. According to NYSERDA, compared to this time last year, New Yorkers are paying:

• 38% more for gasoline
• 50.9% more for diesel
• 35.1% more for home heating oil

Meanwhile, other countries around the world are responding to this crisis by investing heavily in renewables. To note just a few examples:

• France is banning new gas heating systems, nearly doubling support for electrification from 5.5 billion euros to 10 billion in the next four years, and heavily subsidizing EVs
• South Korea is accelerating their roadmap to develop 100 GW of renewables by 2030
• After adding 55 GW in solar and wind capacity over the past 5 years, the United Kingdom substantially cut Britain's dependence on gas (39% lower in March 2026 compared to March 2021) and saves 7 million pounds per day on gas purchases.

It's not just other countries. Many states - blue and red, are proving that even under Trump, we can make progress. For instance:

• Virginia has adopted a flurry of clean energy reforms. These include:
  • Legalizing plug-in solar (which New York can do too by passing the SUNNY Act)
  • Increasing procurement requirements for rooftop solar from 1 to 5%
  • Increased procurement targets for energy storage - including 4.5 GW of long-duration storage
  • Requirements to quantify grid utilization and adoption of grid-enhancing technologies, and a requirement to add storage at existing solar projects.
• California has added 12 GW in the past 5 years.
  • Following grid strains brought on by climate-driven wildfire and extreme heat, California set aggressive procurement targets that drove a record-breaking buildout of battery-storage. Batteries are now able to supply 43% of evening peak energy demand, more than twice the energy supplied by natural gas. The pace of growth has accelerated.
• Texas has quadrupled the scale of battery storage additions to the grid in the last 3 years, adding over 10 GW of batteries.
• Illinois increased procurement targets both for renewables and for storage, boosted energy efficiency programs, and created a major new framework to expand Virtual Power Plants.

But instead of taking practical action like the governors of the states listed above, Governor Hochul is focusing on what New York can't do. In the month since the war started, New Yorkers paid $265 million more for the exact same amount of gasoline. This doesn't even cover the costs from diesel premiums - which have been even steeper than gasoline, or for heating oil or natural gas. In the past 2 weeks, costs for these fossil fuels have only continued to rise.

If Governor Hochul instead invested in financing the transition to renewable energy, we could lower costs now for the majority of households while making the downpayment that will shield us from future price shocks. Multiple studies draw this conclusion. A strong Cap and Invest program would yield $6.9 billion in net savings for households earning up to $200,000, or $1,060 per household, over the first decade.

So here's what Governor Hochul can do right now, even with Trump as president, to lower costs for New Yorkers and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

1. Accelerate renewable generation
   • She can do this by boosting solar and battery storage procurement targets and building renewables.
2. Increase electrification of vehicles and buildings
   • Electrify public buses and corporate fleets (the Clean Deliveries Act does this), target EV subsidies to the highest-mileage low-income individuals
   • Eliminate the Obligation to Serve (remember the NY HEAT Act?!) which is a key bottleneck to saving ratepayers money and enabling whole neighborhoods to pursue alternatives to gas pipes, like heat pumps
   • Accelerate building repairs and weatherization to help New Yorkers save money by saving energy
   • Help homeowners on delivered fuels go all-electric
3. Make clean energy transmission a top priority
   • Connect the upstate and downstate grids, so we can bring onshore wind and solar downstate
   • Accelerate the installation of Grid Enhancing Technology so that we can get more out of our grid without a massive, expensive overhaul of the aging infrastructure

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