Commentary: Small businesses will grow in a greening economy
By Bob Rossi and John Leland
Four years after the passage of the landmark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, we are grossly behind schedule. The required mechanisms for its mandate remain underfunded, and many key bills will need public support to pass the Legislature with only one month left of session.
At this critical moment in history, we are seeing increased efforts to frame climate action as conflicting with the interests of New York businesses. This is dangerous and wrong: Though climate action may be at odds with the near-term interests of the fossil fuel industry and some multinational corporations, it is good for small New York businesses and a growing green economy.
Small businesses are New York state’s biggest job creator. While Idaho-based Micron is celebrated for projecting 9,000 new jobs in Syracuse over a 20-year period and indirectly driving another 40,000 new jobs in the region, little attention is given to the fact that New York’s small businesses create nearly 100,000 new jobs annually. These are not famous corporations, but the familiar local and family-owned businesses in your town, plus many startups and niche businesses that you never knew existed. They are the backbone of our economy and our communities.