ICYMI: NYDN Op-Ed Highlights Gov. Hochul's Series of Climate Failures (Not Just Congestion Pricing!)

NEW YORK, NY (07/01/2024) (readMedia)-- Yesterday, the New York Daily News published an op-ed that highlights Governor Kathy Hochul's disastrous climate record since assuming office. Despite positioning herself as a climate leader at home and abroad, in practice Governor Hochul has repeatedly hindered New York's ability to lead the nation on climate issues and to achieve its own emissions goals.

Governor Hochul's decision last month to suspend New York City's congestion pricing plan was just the latest in a long list of climate failures under her administration. Since assuming office, she has attempted to weaken New York State's Climate Law, failed to deliver three major offshore wind projects, and derailed negotiations for landmark climate legislation known as the NY HEAT Act.

See here and below for the full New York Daily News opinion from Spring Street Climate Fund President John Raskin:

Congestion fees & the aftermath: Gov. Hochul is making a climate disaster

As the leader of a large and prominent blue state, Gov. Hochul has worked for more than two years to position herself as a global climate leader. In Europe, she met with the Pope and government leaders to tout New York's climate agenda. In the United States, she co-chairs the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of governors dedicated to leading on climate.

And in New York, she makes frequent reference to our state's "nation-leading climate plan," and our ambitious targets to generate clean power and clean up buildings and transportation.

There is only one problem with the governor's vaunted climate leadership: in practice, most of it is not real.

Hochul drew critical attention this month when she abruptly stepped away from congestion pricing, a genuinely nation-leading program that would cut pollution, reduce traffic congestion and produce billions of dollars to upgrade the nation's largest public transit system. Critics pounced, accurately pointing out that the governor was torpedoing her own climate agenda.

But in reality, Hochul's failures on climate have been piling up, sometimes prominently and sometimes quietly, for well more than a year.

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which became law before Hochul took office, requires sharp reductions in climate pollution, with the effect not only of fighting climate change but also of saving billions of dollars for New Yorkers through investments that will reduce energy costs, improve health outcomes and avoid expensive climate disasters.

But in Hochul's 2023 legislative session, she attempted to undermine the law, introducing a proposal to loosen restrictions on the climate-busting gas methane - a proposal that quickly died in the Legislature after dramatic public outcry.

The governor has held news conferences touting clean energy progress throughout the state: at a groundbreaking in Whitehall, a green jobs event on Long Island, and a recent announcement in Queens about energy efficiency improvements. But in reality, New York's clean energy agenda is hanging by a thread, after the governor's effort to deliver major offshore wind projects imploded over financial problems and Hochul used virtually none of the tools of state government to compensate for the loss.

In the state Legislature, the year's most prominent climate legislation was the NY HEAT Act, which would begin to wind down New York's dirty and expensive gas distribution network and save billions of dollars for utility customers. Hochul endorsed key pieces of the bill, but then by all accounts used little of her massive leverage in negotiations, leaving the foot-dragging state Assembly to hold up this bill and other climate initiatives in the final weeks of the session.

As millions of New Yorkers suffered through a massive statewide heat wave, Hochul drew mockery online for her upbeat and substance-free recommendations that New Yorkers "stay cool" in the dangerous heat.

But her deeper failure of leadership is not her response to a heat wave; it's her year-long series of actions that will make heat waves like this more frequent and more devastating as years go by.

If Hochul wants to become a genuine climate leader, her course correction can't be a better TikTok when the next heat wave hits. It has to be a results-oriented approach to climate policy that replaces flashy announcements with measurable outcomes.

As first steps, the governor should reinstate congestion pricing, providing some relief from auto exhaust that is making a steamy summer worse. She should take responsibility for passing priority climate legislation through the New York State Legislature, starting with the NY HEAT Act that she endorsed but left to stall in the Assembly.

Then she should roll out a real nation-leading cap and invest program that genuinely tackles emissions and prioritizes the needs of communities that have suffered disproportionately from more than a century of burning fossil fuels.

With these steps, Hochul can regain her credibility as a genuine climate leader, and establish the momentum she will need to get on track with a more ambitious agenda that can tackle pollution from six million buildings statewide while actually building out renewable energy to meet the state's goals.

Hochul is at a crossroads: will she match her climate rhetoric with action? Or will she continue making upbeat announcements followed by steps backward?

With supporters of the governor naming climate change as a top-three issue, and as a clear majority of voters say they want lawmakers to pass climate legislation, the answer may not just matter for the planet. It might matter for Gov. Hochul's own future as she launches her reelection campaign next year.

Raskin is president of the Spring Street Climate Fund. He previously served as executive director of the Riders Alliance.

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