NY Renews: State Budget Fails to Act on Climate, Environmental Justice and Green Jobs

In response to the failure to include the Climate and Community Protection Act in the SFY2017-2018 budget, NY Renews released the following statement:

“In the face of the disastrous rollback of federal climate programs, Governor Cuomo and the Senate Majority Coalition had a chance to defy the Trump administration’s dangerous denial of science by including bold and unprecedented climate action in this year’s final budget. They failed to take this opportunity.  

We applaud Speaker Heastie and the Assembly for continuing to demonstrate visionary leadership in the increasingly urgent fight to stabilize our climate. Including the Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA) in their one-house budget bill demonstrated clearly the Assembly’s commitment to building a safe, just, and prosperous New York for all New Yorkers.

Governor Cuomo and the Senate leadership do not seem to understand the urgency.

The inclusion of the CCPA in the state budget would have given the state’s climate goals the force of law and extended action to all sectors of the economy, including transportation, which emits the most climate pollution. It would have done so while protecting frontline communities and ensuring the creation of good union jobs in a growing renewable economy.

As California did over a decade ago, the Governor and legislative leaders must set these key climate, labor, and equity goals into law. In an era of federal attacks on our climate, our health, and our economy, we strongly urge New York’s leaders to demonstrate that they can rise to the occasion and boldly lead the country in the opposite direction of the Trump administration, by protecting the most vulnerable communities, ensuring green jobs are union jobs, and giving the state’s climate goals the enduring force of law.” 

Source: Environmental Advocates of New York