FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 28, 2026

Contact: Chris Dobens, 718-679-8542, chris@weact.org

NEW YORK – In response to the changes to New York State’s Climate Law, originally known as the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), passed as part of the FY27 State Budget, WE ACT for Environmental Justice’s Energy Justice Senior Policy Manager Eric Walker said the following: 

“WE ACT is deeply disappointed. New Yorkers everywhere are struggling with a staggering energy affordability crisis that is only growing. The families we serve in Harlem – and the millions of others in every community across New York – needed real leadership on energy costs to bring down bills. What they needed was the kind of leadership that boldly invests in clean energy because it’s cheaper and faster to build than the fossil fuel alternative. What they got instead is a budget that delays progress and accountability, obscures emissions of dangerous pollution, and carves out new space for the fossil fuel industry at the expense of ratepayers’ wallets, health, and – for thousands of New Yorkers between now and 2040 – their lives. 

“In no uncertain terms, the Governor has taken us in the wrong direction. Governor Hochul’s insatiable march to hollow out the CLCPA has taken New York from leading the nation forward to backsliding on affordable clean energy. We refuse to accept the narrative that drove these CLCPA changes because it was simply false. As Governor Hochul and the State Legislature agree to a budget that includes sweeping changes to the CLCPA, we stand firm in our position that only two simple tweaks to the law –  an updated emission reduction target and revised timing for emissions reduction regulations – would have given state agencies the flexibility to ambitiously and sensibly implement it. Propping up the CLCPA as the boogeyman in our energy bills’ closet was not a good-faith policy argument. It was a pretext and it led directly to policy decisions that will make the underlying affordability problem worse.

“On the utility affordability proposals in this budget – reforming utility executive compensation, directing excess profits back to ratepayers, and establishing energy affordability monitoring – we see real potential. These tools belong in a serious affordability agenda, and we are committed to working with the Public Service Commission to make them as strong and as meaningful as possible for everyday New Yorkers. 

“As we look ahead, WE ACT will keep fighting – in the courts, before state agencies, and alongside the communities that have carried the cost of inaction the longest. The lawsuit we brought with other petitioners to hold this state to its own climate commitments was not based on ideology. It was an act of accountability for violating the law – and a judge agreed with us. We call on the Legislature to pick up where this budget left off: advance the complementary policies that advance energy security and affordability, hold state agencies to timely and enforceable implementation, and make clear to the Governor that this law belongs to New Yorkers, not to the next budget negotiation.”

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WE ACT for Environmental Justice is a Northern Manhattan-based, membership-driven organization whose mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low-income residents are meaningfully included in the development 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.