Environmentalists and NY lawmakers clash with Cuomo over the gov’s foot-dragging on climate change legislation

ALBANY — Environmentalists and lawmakers aren’t buying Gov. Cuomo’s claim that it’s too late in the session to pass substantial climate change-related legislation.

While the governor failed to make combating climate change a priority on his end-of-session wish list, advocates and elected officials said Tuesday there’s still time to address the issue.

“We are here to push for comprehensive climate legislation before the end of legislative session, a goal that we believe is still achievable no matter what the governor said yesterday,” said Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters.

A day after saying he doesn’t expect the sweeping Climate and Community Protection Act to be approved in the final 10 days of the session, Cuomo again expressed his doubts about the bill.

“What I don’t want to do is give people a political placebo where we put forth dates and goals that we cannot make,” he told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Tuesday.

The legislation, which has been passed by the Assembly in previous years, is meant to rapidly ween New York off fossil fuels, invest nearly half of the state’s climate funds into low-income communities and set higher wage standards for “green” jobs and make the Empire State a national leader in climate justice.

Lawmakers said they see a path forward despite the governor’s comments.

“We can all do that within the next nine days. There is nothing that can stop us,” said Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-Nassau), the bill’s main sponsor and the chairman of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee. “We will not take ‘no’ for an answer and we will do our part to ensure that nation-leading climate change legislation will be passed in Albany this year.”

Kaminsky said the bill has the backing of the entire Democratic conference in the Senate. However, the legislation has stalled and not made it out of committee in the Assembly.

Cuomo announced his own Green New Deal back in January. His proposal included converting all of the state’s energy to be 100% carbon free by 2040, quadrupling the state’s offshore wind target by 2035 and doubling distributed solar deployment by 2025.

The Climate and Community Protection Act is even more aggressive, requiring a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and a 100% transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy across the economy by 2050, as well as remediation for the most vulnerable communities and investment in a green new economy.

Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn) cited the impacts of extreme weather on cities like New York while pressing for the passage of the climate act.

“Those of us representing coastal communities know that we no action on climate change this session is not an option," he said. “We need to move aggressively to be part of the global solution to prevent more extreme and devastating weather events like Superstorm Sandy.”

The governor, while expressing doubts about the bill’s ambitious goals, said he remains committed to coming up with a way to combat climate change.

“I believe this is the most pressing issue of our time, but I don’t wan to to play politics with it,” Cuomo said.