New York Falling Behind in Implementing Bold Climate Law

In July 2019, shortly after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), I wrote in an op-ed, “The champagne corks are still popping. But the realization is dawning that implementing the new law will be really, really hard. New York is boldly going where no state has gone before … It will take a great deal of sweat and treasure (no one knows just how much), as well as a continuation of the political will that brought us to this point.”\nWe still do not know how much sweat and treasure will be required, but sadly it appears that the political will may be faltering. Gov. Kathy Hochul has admitted that New York will not meet some of the targets and, in a recent television interview she said, “The costs have gone up so much I now have to say, ‘What is the cost on the typical New York family?’ The goals are still worthy. But we have to think about the collateral damage of these decisions. Either mitigate them or rethink them.”\nThe state got off to a promising start in implementing the CLCPA. It created a 22-member Climate Action Council that was required to issue a “scoping plan” that would detail how the law’s goals would be met. The Council, led by Basil Seggos, then commissioner of the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Doreen Harris, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and its eight advisory panels labored intensely for two years, held hundreds of meetings and hearings, and issued its final plan on Jan. 1, 2023, right on schedule. DEC, as required, established statewide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions limits and a social cost of carbon. But then things became rocky.\nThis article summarizes the status of the implementation of the CLCPA. It draws in part on the Sabin Center’s New York State Climate Law Tracker and CLCPA Scoping Plan Tracker.