NY Renews Statement on the true cost of pollution

GOP attempts to hide real cost of continued emissions; more New Yorkers killed from air pollution than homicide each year

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***: April 27, 2021

Contact: Arielle Swernoff | (646) 450-5461 | arielle@nyrenews.org 

Web: @NYRenews | www.nyrenews.org

In response to the NYS Senate GOP press conference on the CCIA, NY Renews released the following statement:

“These attacks are no surprise. For years, fossil fuel interests, and their GOP enablers, have lied about the impacts of their noxious emissions, and spun doomsday stories about even the most moderate climate policy. They’re taking a page from the playbook of Big Tobacco, lying about the effects of their actions while asking people to pay to coat their lungs in noxious chemicals. They claim they will have no choice but to raise the costs of essential services on working New Yorkers, while at the same time, the CEO on Exxon Mobil made $23 million in 2019. Any cost increase is a clear and deliberate choice to punish New Yorkers, not the natural result of enacting necessary climate policy. 

Republicans and business interests arguing that the CCIA would raise costs on consumers fail to recognize the human costs of continuing to pollute our air and communities with fossil fuels. Let’s be clear: New Yorkers are dying every single day because of climate change and pollution. In New York City alone, air pollution from vehicles contributes to more premature deaths every year (322 deaths in 2017) than either homicides or traffic fatalities. Three quarters of New York’s African American and Latino residents and almost 80 percent of New York’s Asian American residents live in areas where pollution is higher than the state average. Superstorm Sandy, which represents just a taste of what’s to come if we don’t stop polluting, caused an estimated $74.1 billion in economic damages. We now also know based on a 2020 Harvard study that incremental decreases in air pollution would have led to hundreds less COVID deaths. Policies that let pollution and climate change continue unchecked perpetuate deep racial and economic injustice. 

New Yorkers should not be fooled by these lies. Our communities and our state demand no less than real, equitable climate action now.” 

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