Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Citing affordability, NY Gov. Hochul looks to punt climate rules
By
Jon Campbell
Published Mar 20, 2026
Modified Mar 20, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Susan Watts/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
By
Jon Campbell
Published Mar 20, 2026
Modified Mar 20, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to scale back a landmark climate law once hailed as one of the nation’s strongest, arguing it’s necessary to deal with the “economic and political challenges” facing the state.
In an op-ed Friday, Hochul laid out a handful of significant changes she’s urging lawmakers to make to the state’s landmark 2019 climate law, which requires New York to slash its greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050 – goals the state is already on track to miss.
That includes punting the regulations for the state’s emissions-cutting program for another four years to the end of 2030, a move that would effectively nullify that year’s mandate. Hochul then would add a new benchmark for 2040 and keep the 2050 mandate while changing the methodology used to calculate emissions, a move that would instantly put the state closer to meeting its goals.
The op-ed, published on the Empire Report, a news aggregation site, comes after Hochul has hinted for weeks that she wants to roll back the law known as the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which she once enthusiastically supported as a way to combat the negative effects of climate change.
Now, Hochul says she still supports the overall spirit of the law, but claims the state can’t meet the 2030 mandate without imposing major costs on utility customers.
“While I am still committed to working toward our targets, with all the stress our residents are under, New Yorkers expect their elected officials to prioritize affordability,” Hochul wrote in her op-ed. “They are suffering from high costs every single day and I for one will not ignore their cries for relief.”
Environmental advocates accused Hochul of trying to gut the climate law.
They’ve brought a lawsuit seeking to force the governor’s administration to finalize climate regulations it has delayed for more than a year, the same regulations Hochul is now trying to push to 2030. As currently proposed, those regulations would include a “cap-and-invest” program, which would set a cap on emissions and require polluters who exceed the cap to pay for “allowances” that would be used to fund climate-friendly projects.
Environmentalists say the climate law’s benefits more than cancel out any costs. They called on lawmakers to reject Hochul’s proposals.
Elizabeth Moran, New York policy advocate for Earthjustice, the nonprofit leading the lawsuit against the state, said Hochul’s plan would allow her to “ totally renege on the climate law so she can keep doing nothing instead of working together with the Legislature to drive down New Yorkers’ skyrocketing energy bills.”
“She's trying to use the budget process to make a secret deal,” Moran said. “Let's be clear: This is a manufactured election-year climate-law crisis that the governor is trying to push onto the Legislature to cover for her own failure of leadership.”
Business groups and labor unions have cheered Hochul’s push to scale back the law, saying the potential short-term costs are too much to bear. That includes the cost of the cap-and-invest program.
The governor is up for re-election this year and has centered her campaign on affordability. Last month, her administration released a memo claiming the costs of meeting the 2030 mandate with a cap-and-invest program would drive up gas prices by more than $2 a gallon and impose costs of at least $2,300 a year for many New York City households by 2031 — estimates that environmental groups dispute.
“These are reasonable and necessary corrections that will avoid onerous and costly mandates based on impractical emission-reduction targets,” said Heather Mulligan, president and CEO of The Business Council, the state’s largest business organization.
Hochul wants to include the changes in a final state budget agreement, which is due in less than two weeks. Some state lawmakers had grown frustrated with Hochul failing to provide specifics.
Assemblymember Deborah Glick, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the environmental conservation committee, signaled she’s open to negotiating changes to deadlines for the state’s emissions targets.
But Glick said she’s not open to making changes to the accounting methodology, which would measure the global warming impact of emissions on a 100-year scale rather than a 20-year scale — a move that would make it easier for the state to make its goals on account of methane emissions that are more damaging in the short term.
As of January 2025, New York reduced its emissions by about 9% compared to 1990 levels, far off the pace to meet the 40% benchmark by 2030 under the current methodology, according to the New York State Energy Research Development Authority. Adopting the 100-year benchmark would instantly put the state on a track toward meeting the goal.
“You can change the deadlines, but you can't change the accounting and you can't change the science,” Glick said. “Because the accounting methodology is based on the science of which emissions are most damaging to the environment.”
On the Senate side, 29 Democrats sent a letter to Hochul earlier this month vowing to resist any substantive changes to the climate law.
Hochul, meanwhile, has argued New York is an outlier in relying on measuring greenhouse gas impacts on a 20-year scale. The Paris Agreement, for example, relies on a 100-year measure.
“These proposed changes preserve the intent of the law while realistically recognizing the economic and political challenges we face,” she said.
Scaling the climate law back could help neutralize a Republican line of attack as Hochul seeks her second full term in office. Her GOP opponent, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, has railed against the climate law, as have many Republicans in the Legislature.
But state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, a Republican from the Buffalo area, said Hochul’s plan amounts to “meaningless delays that will do nothing to help lower New Yorkers’ utility costs.”
“The only way to ensure affordable and reliable energy is to repeal the Climate Act and move forward with a new plan that is realistic,” he said in a statement.
The state budget is due by April 1, though Hochul and lawmakers have missed that deadline each year since she took office in 2021.
Tagged
Health and Science
Politics
new york
Jon Campbell
Jon Campbell covers the New York State Capitol for WNYC and Gothamist. Prior to that, he covered the Capitol for more than a decade for the USA TODAY Network. He has twice earned the Walter T. Brown Memorial Award, an honor given annually by the Legislative Correspondents Association alumni for outstanding state government coverage. Jon grew up in the Buffalo area and graduated from the University at Albany. Got a tip? Email Jon at [email protected] or Signal at JonCampbellNY.90.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .