NYS Climate Justice Working Group resignation statement from Eddie Bautista, Rahwa Ghirmatzion and Elizabeth Yeampierre
We can no longer serve as Climate Justice Working Group members under Governor Hochul in good conscience. The climate justice movement often says “the transition is inevitable, but justice is not.” The passage of the 2019 Climate Act represented a turning point and a new path where our communities could maybe finally breathe clean air and live in healthy homes and neighborhoods. We joined the Climate Justice Working Group because we were hopeful and energized by serving our communities and helping guide the State’s transition to a cleaner, healthier, and renewable energy future.
Six years later, we are stunned and disappointed by the Governor’s backpedaling and her lack of vision, commitment, and focus. Little progress has been made for disadvantaged communities (DACs), despite the law. Over the last two years, Governor Hochul not only sought to undermine the Climate Law by diluting the emissions reduction accounting standards, but shockingly paused the implementation of the widely debated NYC congestion pricing law for months. The Governor has also been slow to implement the Environmental Justice Siting Law and complete the first ever statewide community air monitoring initiative by identifying pollution mitigation commitments as required by the Climate Act. In last week’s State of the State, the Governor did not even mention any environmental or climate justice priorities, leaving us to wonder what her priorities are for our communities. Finally, although the Governor was poised to present a cap-trade-and invest program (with no DAC protections), she indefinitely delayed its implementation and the sustained funding from corporate polluters that it would have provided for investment in our communities.
As of today, corporations are still polluting and poisoning our neighborhoods, making our communities sick, and causing climate disruptions that are destroying our infrastructure, neighborhoods, and way of life. We are not sure what will convince the Governor to act urgently as we come out of a drought that led to over 200 brush fires in New York and as neighborhoods burn in California. We are resigning because we, sadly, no longer see a path forward working with a Governor who fails to center the health and priorities of environmental and climate justice communities and falters to do hard, but right things for our communities. The cost of living is rising, as are the dangers of floods, heat waves, and storms – even though there are potentially linked policy solutions that can begin mitigating all these conditions. Governor Hochul needs to step in and step it up and hold corporate polluters accountable and make sure the transition to a cleaner, healthier, and climate-ready future is affordable and just for New Yorkers – all New Yorkers. This climate justice failure rests squarely with the Governor.