Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Hochul officials back off last-minute change to NY climate law
By
Rosemary Misdary
Published Apr 6, 2023
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 .
Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
By
Rosemary Misdary
Published Apr 6, 2023
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
After mounting opposition, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration is backing off a last-minute budget proposal that would change the way New York counts the impact of greenhouse gases to satisfy the state’s climate law. Critics argued the policy change would underestimate the state’s emissions.
The proposal targets the state’s global warming potential, or GWP — the way regulators assess the harms of carbon emissions. The state’s climate law currently measures impacts over a 20-year period, which provides a more accurate estimate for highly potent emissions such as methane, according to environmental experts. The proposed change would make the climate law less stringent – by tracking it over a longer period of 100 years.
Such a change could result in delaying action to reduce statewide emissions — and it was broadly criticized by environmentalists and lawmakers after Politico reported the proposal’s details on Sunday.
On Wednesday afternoon in Albany, Basil Seggos, the commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, said the change to greenhouse gas accounting would no longer be a priority for this budget cycle.
“The fundamental issue is cost, and cost is a real driver of the success of this program,” Seggos said. State officials also claim the current GWP accounting is stricter than standards used by the federal government and international scientific bodies like the U.N. International Panel on Climate Change.
DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
For the scientists who decried the proposal, meeting climate goals is the issue at stake. Methane is 80 times more powerful at trapping heat than carbon, and accounts for nearly one-third of global warming.
Since its introduction on March 27 by its sponsor state Sen. Kevin Parker, the proposal has met strong objections. In the past week, environmental groups and state lawmakers such as Sens. Liz Krueger and Peter Harckham have sent memos and statements that denounced the alterations to the climate law.
Some of the stiffest opposition came from members of the Climate Action Council, an appointed body meant to advise regulators and the governor’s office on the implementations of state’s climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Signed in 2019, the CLPCA calls for a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, such as methane and carbon, within the next seven years. By 2050, the law requires at least an 85% decrease.
Members of the council and the Climate Justice Working Group — who participated in crafting the climate law — sent letters addressed to Hochul’s administration with concerns that her proposal would weaken the CLCPA and set New York off course in its path to zero emissions.
“Large reductions of both carbon dioxide and methane over the next decade or two are critical if the Earth is to move away from the precipice of runaway, irreversible climate disruption,” Dr. Robert Howarth, a member of the council and Cornell University professor of ecology and environmental biology, wrote in a letter to Hochul and state legislative leaders dated March 31.
“On this time scale, GWP100 [global warming potential for 100-year period] does a terrible job of representing the climatic damage caused by methane,” he added.
While strong objections have pushed the proposal into the back seat for current budget negotiations, it’s not off the state legislative table or future budget talks. As Seggos and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority President Doreen Harris told reporters Wednesday, it’s likely to come up again.
“It's not that we won't be taking up the matter [change in GHG metric],” Harris said. “The reality is there's many pathways to achieve that outcome, and it may be through the budget, it may be through the [legislative] session.”
20 years versus 100 years
Environmental experts said the centurylong metric is an appropriate measurement for the impacts of carbon dioxide, which accumulates in the atmosphere for hundreds of years and takes just as long to break down.
For emissions with lifespans that are a fraction of a century, like methane, the pivot would underestimate the pollutants' climate effects. The longer metric does not account for methane’s removal from the atmosphere at the end of its almost 12-year life, or its eventual breakdown into two other greenhouse gases: water vapor and carbon dioxide.
The longer metric, when applied to methane, downplays its greenhouse gas impacts by two-thirds, relative to the 20-year timeframe.
The use of GWP100 by federal agencies in greenhouse gas accounting is out of touch with current science.
Dr. Robert Howarth, a member of the Climate Action Council and a Cornell University professor of ecology and environmental biology
“The use of GWP100 hugely underestimates this [methane's contribution to global warming], and suggests far less urgency is needed to reduce methane emissions,” Howarth wrote. “The use of GWP100 by federal agencies in greenhouse gas accounting is out of touch with current science.”
Despite criticism, Director of State Operations Kathryn Garcia said the move to the commonly used 100-year framework lines up with estimates provided by the U.N.’s International Panel on Climate Change. But the U.N. panel makes no specific recommendations for measuring global warming impacts — and publishes values for 20, 100 and 500-year periods.
The scientific community follows a similar approach to allow for a more accurate comparison of different greenhouse gases and their impacts. The smaller 20-year period is commonly used to prioritize short-lived gases, such as methane.
“If you roll back the metric for a longer timeframe, they are responsible for much less,” said Raya Salter, a a member of the Climate Action Council and an environmental and climate justice lawyer. “That has many different impacts: it slows down climate action; it makes what they do to mitigate seem like it's doing more.”
Gothamist reached out to the other eight appointed members of the Climate Action Council for their views.
Peter Iwanowicz, New York director of the Energy Foundation, deferred to Howarth, who strongly opposes the metric change. Likewise, Anne Reynolds, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, said changing the methodology in the climate law is an important topic that should have been discussed transparently by the council and stakeholders with the state – and not thrown into a last-minute legislative proposal.
Mario Cilento, president of the New York state chapter of the labor union AFL-CIO, said that reviewing the accounting standards makes sense in the context of proposals to reduce emissions. Cilento is concerned that not defaulting to the widely used 100-year standard could make New York less competitive and less attractive to private developers.
The remaining appointees did not respond to a request for comment
The argument for affordability
Also motivating the governor's office to adopt the 100-year metric is Hochul's proposed cap-and-invest program. If approved by state legislators, this program will go into effect in two years and put limits on greenhouse gas emissions that become tougher over time. The program would fine industrial facilities, power plants and other producers who fail to reduce their emissions and use those funds to support renewable energy.
Garcia, the director of state operations, said the 100-year accounting would make the cap-and-invest program more affordable for the companies that make these emissions — and their customers who might be called upon to pick up the tab.
The governor’s office estimates that changing to the 100-year framework will decrease the projected fines for causing climate pollution. An analysis by Hochul’s administration calculates the impact on gasoline prices would be 60% cheaper for drivers than using a 20-year period. Similarly, natural gas would be around 80% less in comparison for ratepayers.
We do want to make sure that we are continuing to lead the nation, but we also want to ensure that we are having affordability.
Kathryn Garcia, New York's director of state operations
“We can walk and chew gum during this time,” Garcia said. “We do want to make sure that we are continuing to lead the nation, but we also want to ensure that we are having affordability.”
But in effect, the 100-year accounting would make the continued use of fossil fuels more affordable while the state also tries to transition to clean energy — by lowering the bar on climate pollution. This also lowers the penalties that would have been levied under the original framework of the climate law.
The 100-year change also becomes less necessary for the cap-and-invest program if New York sticks to its pledges to phase out the use of fossil fuels in buildings and transportation. Hochul has already directed the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to ban gasoline and diesel-fueled new vehicle sales over the next two decades. In this year’s State of the State address, she voiced support for a gas ban in buildings.
Outside of energy prices, advocates also point to the exponentially increasing frequency and costs on taxpayers for rolling back climate action. Hurricane Sandy cost New York City about $19 billion in damages.
Over the next 30 years, those costs will deepen as extreme weather worsens. Tide and storm surges will increase further inland and at greater heights. The patterns will bring damaging flooding at a frequency that will be more than 10 times today's rates, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.These projections don’t account for other effects of climate change, such as inland flooding that’s expected from intensifying rainfall.
Tagged
environment
climate change
new york state
Health and Science
Rosemary Misdary
Rosemary is health & science reporter. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 646-544-9524.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Man shot and killed on Midtown subway platform Saturday afternoon, NYPD says
Police said they're searching for a person of interest.
By
Ryan Kost
and
Elizabeth Kim
Published Oct 17, 2026 at 1:16 p.m. ET
Modified Oct 17, 2026 at 4:10 p.m. ET
Have you seen this Yorkie? NYPD looking for adorable pup dognapped from her Queens home
Suspects were driving a Subaru Forester, police said.
By
Ryan Kost
News
Have you seen this Yorkie? NYPD looking for adorable pup dognapped from her Queens home
Suspects were driving a Subaru Forester, police said.
By
Ryan Kost
Being reigning champions is weird for Knicks fans, but we could get used to this.
By
Catalina Gonella
Tompkins Square Park is getting a makeover. Some say it's too much.
By
Willow Higgins
Deer are all over New Jersey roads looking for sex, state officials warn
By
Rosemary Misdary
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 .