Missed Deadlines Pile Up As New York’s Climate Law Turns Five
FIVE YEARS AFTER New York lawmakers passed a landmark bill to slash greenhouse gas emissions, the state has missed several of the law’s major deadlines — and it’s about to miss another.
When it passed on this day in 2019, the law was heralded as one of the most ambitious climate plans in the world. It established big, long-term mandates — committing the state to net-zero emissions by 2050 — and lots of smaller targets along the way. Now, the growing backlog of deadlines has left the law’s backers in dismay.
“We have all been aghast at just how horribly implementation has been going,” said Eddie Bautista, executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance. “In just five short years, we’ve gone from being visionary leaders to not being able to implement our own laws. It’s just insane.”
By January 1, New York was supposed to set regulations to achieve the law’s core emissions targets. Without them, the state can’t force polluters to comply. In December, it issued a “pre-proposal” for its main strategy to do so — putting a price on emissions through a program known as “cap and invest” — but it has yet to issue even a draft of the rules to establish the program.