Next week, Governor Kathy Hochul will convene an energy summit with state officials and business leaders to discuss achieving New York’s self-imposed climate goals.
However, some critics believe that Hochul could be on the verge of announcing a suspension of this important green energy policy β ββand are talking about a possible congestion charge 2.0.
Environmentalists like Liz Moran fear that it will slow down New York’s rapidly approaching climate goals.
“Unfortunately, we have seen a disturbing pattern from the governor when it comes to climate policy,” said Moran, a policy attorney at Earthjustice, an environmental law nonprofit that is also involved in one of the lawsuits filed against the state to force the implementation of a congestion charge.
Moran expresses concern that next on Hochul’s list of disruptions could be benchmarks related to the 2019 climate law.
“The most recent example is the congestion charge. Months before the governor announced that she would definitely delay its introduction, she had been pushing for it,” said Moran.
Hochul is concerned about affordability. She argued that the congestion charge is too much of a burden when people pay $15 to drive below 60th Street in Manhattan.
“Just like I did with the congestion charge, what are the additional costs of living here?” Hochul asked in an interview with the Albany Times Union on July 18. “And if you’re a family with three kids living in upstate New York, and your energy source is currently oil or even natural gas – what is the cost of this transition?”
Reports released this summer accused the state of failing to meet its clean energy goals. A report released by state Auditor Tom Dinapoli’s office criticized the Hochul administration for poor planning.
Another independent analysis virtually concluded: Insufficient investment in the energy sector is leading to New York’s failure.
“The inflation issues and the war in Ukraine have all impacted our energy business. At the same time, people have gone back to work and demand has picked up again post-Covid,” said Gavin Donohue, president of the Independent Power Producers of New York, Inc. The group represents independent power producers. Donohue is also a member of the state’s Climate Action Council.
“What surprised me is that the governor and the Civil Service Commission that he controls have finally decided to come up with a solution. The fact that they are extending the statutory deadlines to 2033 to 2035, I think, is a positive recognition of the hurdles that we all face in this business,” Donohue said.
Donohue argues that the government needs to conduct a cost analysis so that consumers know what to expect.
“At the end of the day, the lights can’t go out, and it has to be affordable. So I think this summit is part of that announcement to talk about the future and what we need to keep the lights on in this state,” he said.
Others say slowing the transition to renewable energy would be more costly in the long run.
“I can open the newspaper today or any other day and read headlines about increasing damage to the planet internationally. I think yesterday the articles were about how there are more heat-related deaths in this country than anyone could have imagined the day before,” Manhattan Democratic Senator Liz Krueger said in a Zoom interview with NY1.
Krueger says she is OK with missing a deadline as long as the Hochul administration is serious about solving the climate crisis.
“The laws we have put in place give the government the flexibility to adapt when necessary, but our job is not to slow things down,” she added. “We cannot slow down. Our priority must be to move faster and achieve the goals.”
The politician said next week’s summit must produce results.
“If the discussion is simply: the business community says, ‘We can’t meet your targets’ and they go out and change the targets, then that is, frankly, probably the biggest mistake this government can make,” she warned.
When NY1 asked for comment on Wednesday, the governor’s office referred to previous comments from Hochul in which she said she was committed to meeting climate goals.