Politico: NY Governor Backs Off Aggressive Climate Timeline

Gov. Kathy Hochul said she wants to rewrite New York’s climate law, arguing the state needs more time to meet its aggressive goals amid rising energy prices and a legal challenge, reported Marie J. French for Politico. The governor spoke at Politico’s New York Agenda: Albany Summit. “We just need some breathing room,” Hochul said at the Summit, according to Politico.

“Back when the law was passed in 2019, it was a very different world,” Hochul said, according to a transcript issued by the governor’s office. “It was a world that had not seen a global pandemic, that disrupted supply chains for all the component parts, for the nacelles and the wind turbines and everything you need to be able to build offshore wind… Could not have foreseen that. Followed by some of the highest inflation we had seen in years jacking up the cost once again. And then let’s throw on a hostile, very hostile administration in Washington that basically eliminates the tax incentives that businesses count on when they’re going to make investments in renewable energy – solar and wind being the top of the list.

My first conversations with Donald Trump in the White House were all about how he hates offshore wind — worried about the birds and the whales, and it was like, really? All of a sudden you’re a nature lover? This is new to me. So I had some real fights just to get offshore wind turned back on in New York State. So what we didn’t have was a pandemic, inflation, lack of support from the federal government, which had been there before when this was all enacted, and tariffs. So I’m trying to create an environment that’ll adhere to those goals. Who does not want to protect our environment and our climate? Absolutely. I just can’t undo what has happened since those were put in place.”