ALBANY, New York — Gov. Kathy Hochul is moving quickly to push for changes to New York’s landmark emissions reduction law.
The state’s energy authority released a memo addressed to the governor’s office Thursday analyzing the potential impacts of achieving the 2019 law’s targets using a cap-and-trade style system. The memo makes an explicit case that the costs of achieving the law as written would be unpalatable for households.
It presses for changes to the way New York calculates its emissions — which Hochul has previously supported — and to reduce the near-term target of a 40 percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2030.
“If fully implemented with regulations to meet the 2030 targets, [the Climate Law and Community Protection Act’s] original design — differing accounting standards from the internationally-accepted approach and inflexible near-term targets — would combine to yield high costs to New York households and businesses,” the memo states.
