New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation Must Issue Regulations by February 6, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 28, 2025
Contact: Chris Dobens, chris@weact.org, 718-679-8542
NEW YORK – As one of the plaintiffs in the litigation against the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for failing to issue the regulations required by law, under the New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), WE ACT for Environmental Justice is pleased to announce that the Ulster County Supreme Court has ruled in our favor, requiring the DEC to issue these regulations – which the statute required to be finalized by January 1, 2024 – but no later than by February 6, 2026.
“We are very pleased with this ruling, as it will finally get New York State on the road to achieve its mandated climate goals and move toward an equitable clean energy economy,” said Eric Walker, Energy Justice Senior Policy Manager at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. “It also sends a signal that backtracking on the Climate Act is not acceptable. At a time when climate action is under attack from the federal government, New York State should be standing strong, and now it has to.”
Background
In 2019, WE ACT was part of a coalition that helped pass New York State’s CLCPA, now known as New York’s Climate Act. This law set aggressive goals to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030 and 85 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels.
The law required regulations to be finalized by January 1, 2024. And in 2023, the DEC started the process of developing draft emission reduction regulations to launch a cap-and-invest program intended to reduce New York’s statewide greenhouse gas emissions to meet the CLCPA and raise revenue to invest in clean energy and climate mitigation. The state projected that these regulations would also reduce air pollution and have significant health benefits, slashing asthma incidences and emergency room visits across the state, especially in communities that are the most overburdened by pollution.
In late 2023 and throughout 2024, the DEC represented to the public that the draft regulations would come out in 2024 and the regulations would be finalized and in effect by 2025. However, in January 2025, the DEC abruptly reversed course and announced that the draft regulations would not be released this year and has not provided a date by which they will be released.
Without comprehensive regulations in place, New York does not currently have a pathway to achieve the steep greenhouse gas reductions the CLCPA requires by 2030. So, in March 2025, WE ACT joined Citizen Action of New York, PUSH Buffalo, and the Sierra Club – and represented by Earthjustice, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic – in filing a lawsuit urging the Albany County Supreme Court to order the release of overdue regulations required under the CLCPA. The lawsuit asked the court to order the DEC to issue draft regulations immediately and to declare that, by failing to do so, the DEC has violated the climate law and the state constitutional right to clean air.
Today, the Ulster County Supreme Court ruled that the DEC is required to issue these regulations no later than by February 6, 2026.
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WE ACT for Environmental Justice is a Northern Manhattan membership-based organization whose mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low-income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT has offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Visit us at weact.org and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram.