ALBANY, New York — New York’s Democratic leaders are on the verge of weakening the state’s landmark climate law as part of a budget deal in a major blow to the state’s leadership on reducing emissions.
Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has spearheaded the push to soften targets for reducing emissions and delay regulations to curb pollutants, arguing those steps are necessary to protect New Yorkers from rising costs and contend with a lawsuit brought by environmental groups.
Hochul has argued that New York is an outlier — even from other blue states — in enshrining emissions reductions targets in law. But other states — including Massachusetts and Washington — do have near-term statutory climate laws that require regulations to achieve specific reductions.
“The lack of a binding target amounts to there being no teeth in the climate law for multiple decades, and that would put New York in a position of ceding its national leadership on climate and clean energy,” said Kate Courtin, the state climate policy and strategy director for the Environmental Defense Fund.
