Senators and Assemblymembers are pushing for action to combat climate change before the legislative session ends later this month. But Governor Andrew Cuomo says the plan is too ambitious and unrealistic.
Senate Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Todd Kaminsky, says he thinks that the state can enact the major anti-climate change measure between now and June 19th, when the session is scheduled to end. He says there isn’t time to wait.
Kaminsky says new reports have found there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than in “anytime in the history of homo sapiens walking on the earth”.
“That is an incredibly scary statistic,” said Kaminsky.
He said his own Long Island community had to deal with after effects of Superstorm Sandy in 2012. And he says everyone has seen the news footage of California burning, and severe floods in the Midwest.
Kaminsky was joined at the news conference by several other Democratic lawmakers, environmental groups, and actor Megan Boone, of the TV show Blacklist. She made a heartfelt appeal for action, saying she worries about the future for her young daughter.
“It’s beginning to feel, with the frightening indifference of our federal and now our state government to address this issue, that she won’t have much of a life to claim,” said Boone.
The measure, known as the Climate and Community Protection Act, would require the state to be entirely free of all fossil fuels by 2050. New York would need to get half of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, higher than the current goal of around 30 percent by that year. The measure also distributes 40 percent of all funding for clean energy to projects to communities who have been disadvantaged by fossil fuel pollution, and who are more adversely affected by extreme weather.
Governor Cuomo also has a priority list for the end of the session, but it does not include climate change measures. Cuomo, speaking on WNYC’s the Brian Lehrer Show the day before the news conference, says he does not think the goals in the legislation are realistic. He says all of the state’s power plants would have to close, and that’s not feasible in a short time frame.
“What I don’t want to do is to give people a political placebo where we put forth dates and goals that we cannot make,” said Cuomo. “And I don’t want to tell people that we can move to a carbon-free economy in a period of time that I know that we can’t.”
Cuomo released his own version of a Green New Deal in his budget plan in January, but it was not adopted in the final spending plan, approved April 1. Cuomo’s plan also has a number of goals to reduce greenhouse gases, though it does go as far as the legislature’s plan. It would require that the state’s electricity come from what’s known as “clean power” by 2040. It continues the state’s ban on fracking for natural gas and would end coal burning by next year.
Julie Tighe, head of the New York League of Conservation Voters, says the governor is “not doing enough” to use his political capital to get something passed.
“We believe it’s still achievable, no matter what the governor may have said yesterday,” Tighe said.
Tighe formerly worked under Cuomo as chief of staff at the Department of Environmental Conservation.
The state Assembly has already approved the climate change measure. Senator Kaminsky was asked by reporters whether the Senate might pass the bill and then force the governor’s hand by presenting him with the legislation to sign or veto. He hesitated in his answer.
“That’s above my pay grade,” Kaminsky said. “I just know that we need to get the best product we can out of the Senate, and work with anyone who wants to work with us to make this a reality.”
Kaminsky and the other supporters of the measure say there’s still time for a three-way agreement and a chance to make significant steps against climate change before the session is over.