April Fools
This is NO JOKE:
All you NY'ers out there need to write your NYS Assembly and Senate to stop the inclusion of a Bill (S6030/A6039) in the upcoming State Budget Vote (next week).
I rarely try to push my politics - but I feel strongly about this last-minute change to undermine a major democratically-won-and-publicly-vetted policy by sliding a significant *last minute* climate policy change into a budget vote (which fundamentally helps the fossil fuel companies).
In brief,
NY’s Energy Chairs in the Senate (Brooklyn democratic Senator Parker) and Assembly (Hudson Valley democratic Assemblyperson Barrett) introduced a terrible bill (S6030/A6039) designed to undermine NY's Climate Act (CLCPA, signed into law in 2019) by slipping it into Governor Hochul’s budget.
We probably only have 24-48 hours to respond -
Your simplist message: Oppose Bill (S6030/A6039)
OPTION 1 (5 min) SIGN AN ONLINE PETITION: go here and it will send your letter to your reps based on your zip code.
Action Network: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/reject-s6030a6039-in-the-budget-defend-nys-climate-law?source=direct_link&
OPTION 2 (15 min) CALL our Governor and Leaders of NY Senate and House
Call: Governor Kathy Hochul at 518-474-8390, Press "3," and then "2" to be connected to someone at Hochul’s office or "1" to leave a message
Call: Assembly Speaker Heastie: (518) 455-3791
Call: Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins: (212) 298-5585 or 914-423-4031 or (518) 455-2585 (switch numbers once voice mails fill out)
Sample Script:
For Hochul: Hi, my name is [ — ]. I’m calling to urge Governor Hochul to reject bill S6030/A6039 (Parker/Barrett) and keep it out of the NY state budget. This bill would change the way that New York State accounts for greenhouse gas emissions and erode the nation-leading standards codified in New York’s Climate Act. Our state’s 20-year standard accurately accounts for methane, meaning that fossil fuel companies will have to pay their fair share for their emissions under any pollution pricing system. This bill would change the accounting standard to a 100-year timeline, making it more dangerous and less expensive for polluters to release their toxic emissions. If passed, we’ll miss our shot to massively slash emissions—and we’d weaken NY’s powerful Climate Law. I’m calling on you to protect our future and reject S6030/A6039 today!
More options: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cz2YLiB8mODI1mpAO9L-XVy3IMcUv4kzJ9ArHOVVSmo/edit#gid=1284761717
OPTION 3 (5 minutes) I encourage you to write/call/email your State Senator and Assembly people
OPTION 4 (10 minutes) Please ask these democrats TO HALT their sponsored BILL
Assembly Bill A6039 le by Energy Chair Assemblyperson Didi Barrett (D-Hudson Valley)
Senate Bill S6030 led by Energy Chair Sen. Kevin Parker (D-Brooklyn)
Governor Hochul, who has allowed it to be included in the budget vote
OPTION 5 (10 minutes) PleaseTHANK these democrats that are standing by the extremely well-considered and democratically engaged CLCPA and fighting against the inclusion of this bad bill (S6030/A6039) in the Budget vote
Senate Finance Committee Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan)
Senate Environmental Conservation Chair: Sen. Pete Harckham (D-Hudson Valley)
OPTION 6 for Tweeters: check out this tweet pack hosted by the trusted NY Renews:
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My summary of context:
1) In 2019, NYS passed unprecedented legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
It is called the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA 2019)
I have grown to love this complicated but extremely well considered bill despite being skeptical of it at first.
It mandates that all sectors of NYS reduce Greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050.
2) Since its mandate in 2019, the CLCPA has gone through serious rounds of expert and public engagement,
I have been privy to this process (working on Ag and Forestry sector) - it has been an incredible and humbling process.
While of course I don’t agree with everything, it has been a massive democratic effort, involving large numbers of diverse stakeholders, experts, and citizen engagement.
It has given time for discussion and compromise for democratically arriving at a massive scoping plan, which has also been voted on and accepted (READ: a HUGE amount of democratic work has been going on!)
Of all the voting members of the Climate Action Council, only 3 stakeholders (all from fossil fuel industries) voted against the Scoping Plan.
And yet, on Friday at 4:53pm, I became aware of a last minute bill (S6030/A6039) to be added to the NYS budget (this is an extra-ordinary political move by our Democratic governor Hochul, led by Democratic Senator Parker from Brooklyn and Democratic Senator Barrett from the Hudson Valley).
While the language seems innocent enough, it actually undermines what was vetted and agreed to in the CLCPA 2019.
The actual language in the proposed bill: https://legiscan.com/NY/text/S06030/2023
biased for alternative energy sources that are problematic (not necessarily net neutral while claiming to be ‘renewable’) or associated with air quality concerns
favorable to the natural gas industry to continue to do business as usual.
There are several other issues, but I’ll spare you. Email me if you want a full critique.
Most infuriating, the rest of us have had less than a 1 week chance to respond to something that has been vetted over YEARS of serious public engagement.
To hear some review on the Leonard Lopate show, you can go here: https://www.wnyc.org/story/methane-climate-and-new-york-state-budget/
