Statement re: Senate Failure to Pass Climate and Community Protection Act
Contact:
Dan Sherrell, 732-589-2412, dan.sherrell@nyrenews.org
Travis Proulx, 917-462-5526, tproulx@eany.org
On Thursday, the New York State Senate failed to pass the Climate and Community Protection Act. In response, NY Renews released the following statement:
On June 1st, Donald Trump made the disastrous decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. On June 21st, the last day of the legislative session, the leaders of the New York Senate failed again to pass a visionary climate bill--the Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA)--at the precise moment when we need state leadership the most.
It is disturbing that, even in the wake of President Trump’s dangerous climate policy rollbacks, the New York State Senate failed to pass landmark climate legislation. This failure is as unconscionable as it is cynical. In ignoring legislation to protect New Yorkers from the worst impacts of a changing climate and seize the vast economic opportunity in clean, renewable energy, the Senate is telling frontline communities, clean energy workers, and all New Yorkers to wait at least another year for this life-saving, economy-boosting legislation--another year our state cannot afford to lose in tackling the growing climate and inequality crisis.
New York, the world’s 12th largest economy, can and should be showing that states’ actions can address the climate crisis even while the Trump administration does everything it can to eviscerate United State’s position as a climate leader.
The CCPA gives New York’s goal of reaching 100% clean, renewable energy by 2050 the force of law, creates fair labor standards for renewable energy jobs, and ensures that state energy funding is accessible to the low-income and environmental justice communities that need it most. The bill was developed and is championed by over 110 organizations statewide, representing many of New York’s most dedicated experts in labor, environmental, and social justice policy. Support for the bill has united low-income communities of color in Buffalo with Hurricane Sandy survivors in Long Island, with clean energy investors in Manhattan. It united labor and environment, from the Teamsters and the Transit Workers, to Catskill Mountainkeeper and Sierra Club. It garnered support from climate champions like Winona LaDuke, Bill McKibben, Angela Adrar, and Michael Brune; racial justice leaders like Ben Jealous, Rashad Robinson, and Black Lives Matter Greater NY; and progressive visionaries like Mark Ruffalo, Robert Reich, and Heather McGhee. And it has garnered bipartisan support in the state Senate itself.
Despite this overwhelming, statewide, cross-sectoral support, the bill’s sponsors--the eight members of the Independent Democratic Conference-- and the senate leadership found any number of excuses not to bring the bill to the floor for a vote. This was their chance to prove they could pass a top-level progressive priority, and they did not live up to the challenge. They did not #CallTheRoll. Meanwhile, the Assembly led on the issue, passing the bill with strong bipartisan support by an ever wider margin than last year.
It is time for Governor Cuomo, who did not include the CCPA in the budget, to step up and lead the way to passage for the nation’s strongest climate, jobs, and justice bill. We urge the Governor as well as the IDC and Senate leadership to pass the CCPA in a special session this summer. If the legislature is returning to Albany to protect the education of NYC school children, then surely the Governor and Senate can also pass legislation critical to the protection of their very future--not to mention the millions of children outside NYC and around the world who are having their futures foreclosed on by the climate crisis. They have left Albany with serious unfinished business, and they must redress this wrong.
In the meantime, NY Renews will continue to hold the Governor and the Senate accountable, and stand up for New Yorkers who want good green jobs, healthy communities, and to protect their communities from the impacts of climate change.