© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

Climate Leadership And Community Protection Act Sets Ambitious Goals

NYS Capitol building in Albany
NYS Capitol

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Democratic-led state legislature have agreed on the most ambitious  goals in the nation  for reducing carbon emissions in the next few decades, and plan to pass it later on Wednesday. But, both supporters and opponents say the key to the measure’s success or failure is in the details of how it will be carried out.  

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act sets the goal of reducing all greenhouse gas emissions from all sources, including cars, by 85% by 2050. 100% of the state’s electric power sources must be carbon-free by 2040. And 35% of the state’s energy funds, used to install clean energy sources, will be reserved for disadvantaged communities that have been adversely impacted by pollution. Senate sponsor Todd Kaminsky, a Democrat from Long Island, said once the targets are met, they will create a fundamental shift in the state’s energy use.

“We’re envisioning people driving electric cars in 2050, heating their homes using renewable energy in 2050, going to work in buildings that are emitting far less carbon then they use today,” Kaminsky said. “With Washington sitting on its hands during a crisis, New York really had to step up.”  

In 2017 President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris accord on combatting climate change.

Kaminsky says the measure sets up a 23-member panel to devise a specific plan of how to meet the goals.

“It’s going to create a road map to 2050, and it’s going to create incentives and a plan to really change the whole economy,” Kaminsky said.

Governor Cuomo, speaking on  the Capitol Pressroom, says once the measure is approved, it will be the strongest in the nation. The state of California’s plan set a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.

“I want New York to have the most aggressive climate change program in the United States of America, period,” Cuomo said on June 18th.

The remarks are a change from several days ago, when Cuomo said he thought the legislature’s bill was a “political placebo” and that its goals were unrealistic.

The state’s major environmental groups praised the deal, calling it a “monumental shift.”  

Peter Iwanowicz, with Environmental Advocates, predicts that the state’s new rules will create market incentives to invent better clean energy sources and methods.

“It will drive it,” Iwanowicz said. “Surety for the financial sector is also baked into this, because they can now write business plans knowing there is an enormous market potential in New York State.”

Katherine Nadeau, with Catskill Mountain Keeper, says the transition does not necessarily mean that New Yorkers will face deprivation when fossil fuels are no longer available. 

“People are looking at climate policy as though they are being forced to eat their broccoli,” she said. “But we are showing them that there is cake out there.”

The state’s Business Council is evaluating the bill. The council’s Darren Suarez says he’s encouraged that the business community will have a seat on the panels, and that the measure takes steps to ensure that manufacturers who are dependent on fossil fuels to make their products don’t just move to other states with lower standards.

He says business owners are also concerned about climate change, but they need practical solutions to reducing emissions.  He says the goals in the legislation are very ambitious, and somewhat unrealistic.

“There could be a breakthrough technology that could be moments away,” said Suarez. “Or it may not come at all, which means we are in real trouble. All of us.”

All sides agree that much will depend on the plans that the panels come up with. 

Related Content