Good campaigns rely on message control. Present your points in simple, understandable, and popular terms, recruit a range of “trusted” messengers, and relentlessly hammer home your message.
We’ve seen just such a campaign directed at undermining the state’s Climate Law. The campaign is underwritten by the oil and gas industries and injected by allies into public debates. The two core messages are that New York’s Climate Law is both unaffordable and its goals unrealistic, even radical.
This effort has been effective. But the claims are false.
First some background. The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (a.k.a the “Climate Law”) was approved six years ago and sets the state on a path toward “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of this Century. The “net zero” goal is consistent with thestandard set by the world’s climate scientists who have warned that in order to avoid the worst consequences of global heating, all nations need to adhere to the net zero goal.
Given the anti-science ideology in Washington, there is little hope for meaningful positive action by the U.S. Congress or the current administration. Thus, states must act.
New York has. Its law is anchored by climate science and its policies embrace the goals established by the world’s experts: phasing out by mid-Century the state’s reliance on power generated by fossil fuels.
In doing so, New York set interim goals designed to guide policymakers as benchmark steps to meet the goals advised by the world’s climate experts. While all agreed that these goals were ambitious, policymakers knew that in order to meet the science-based goal of weaning the state off fossil fuels by the middle of the Century, they must try.
The opponents’ campaign is centered on the falsehood that the impacts of the Climate Law are already being felt and that it is significantly responsible for rising energy costs.
Which is not only untrue, but failing to meet the Climate Law’s requirements will, in fact, be far more costly.
It is true that New York’s residential electricity rates are high, however, relative to the nation’s. In 2018 – the year before the state Climate Law was signed – New York’s residential electricity rates were ranked the seventh-highest in the nation; today they are still ranked seventh highest. Still high to be sure, but the impact of the Climate Law’s passage didn’t make a meaningful difference.
Failing to meet the Climate Law’s goals will be more costly too. After the Climate Law was passed, the state then convened a panel of “stakeholders” to develop a detailed blueprint to meet those interim goals. The panel was chosen and their work completed after a public hearing process and other ways to solicit input. That advisory group concluded “the cost of inaction in New York State exceeds the cost of action by more than $115 billion.”
And the argument that the state’s science-based goals are “unrealistic” or “radical” is also false. If New York’s goals were simply too ambitious, then other states would be in the same situation. But that is not the case.
New York ranks 16th in the nation in its reliance on renewable energy. New York ranks 13th in the nation in its production of solar power, behind northeast neighbor Massachusetts (ranked 5th). Of course, differences in geography and climate can drive these rankings, but New York only generates around 5 percent of its electricity from solar, while often-just-as-overcast Germany generates 10 percent of its energy from the sun.
What is true is that implementation of New York’s Climate Law has been lackluster. Since the law was enacted six years ago, it has become clear that the state did not do enough to meet its requirements. Reviews of New York’s efforts, bothinside andoutside the state government found that far too little was accomplished – largely due to an anemic response by the previous and current Administrations.
Of course, the Covid epidemic didn’t help, but state leaders have not galvanized government to achieve the goals set in the Climate Law.
Like any other goals that are set, adjustments have to be made. But the central goal of the Climate Law – namely that the state, the nation, and the world, must end reliance on the burning of fossil fuels – must animate the Hochul Administration and state lawmakers.
Knuckling under to the pressure of the Law’s opponents and succumbing to their disinformation campaign will do nothing other than lead to higher costs and a dangerously weakened climate.
Blair Horner is senior policy advisor with the New York Public Interest Research Group.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.
