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Your Voice Matters: Help Make the Clean Air (& Climate!) Initiative Happen

In this virtual teach-in we address how the Clean Air Initiative can ensure the CLCPA’s environmental justice and greenhouse gas reduction goals are backed by enforceable regulations with mandatory emission limits on New York’s top-emitting sectors, buildings and transportation. We walk you through how to use New York’s official public comment tool to weigh in on the recently proposed Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule, which requires corporate polluters to tell us what they are dumping into our air (really important as EPA has signaled that it will end this requirement at the federal level)

Speakers:

Julie Tighe, President NYLCV & NYLCVEF

Eric Walker, Energy Justice Senior Policy Manager, WE ACT for Environmental Justice

Moderated by Betta Broad, Campaign Director, New Yorkers for Clean Power & Association for Energy Affordability

We dive into:

The latest with NY’s cap-and-invest program, now called the Clean Air Initiative and why it’s our best path to regulate and phase out emissions from buildings and transportation.

The health and economic benefits of cap-and-invest + the $1 billion Sustainable Future Fund

How to show up for upcoming public hearings, submit comments, and help push for the reporting rule that would mandate fossil fuel providers to report their GHG impacts, and call for the full release of regulations to actually cap GHG and copollutant emissions.

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Pass the NY HEAT Act NOW V2

New Yorkers need cleaner heat and lower bills. Tell Gov. Hochul, Speaker Heastie, and the NY Legislature to include the NY HEAT Act in the budget.

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Breathing Easy – New York’s Clean Deliveries Act

From Brooklyn to Babylon, 1 out of 4 New Yorkers resides within a half-mile of a large e-commerce warehouse. Along with fulfilling orders, these facilities bring a host of health and environmental hazards like asthma and heart disease. Historical practices of discrimination and racism placed warehouses near communities of color and low-income families, forcing them to face the brunt of these impacts. It’s time for a change.

The Clean Deliveries Act is a common sense bill that requires these facilities to track and reduce their pollution, thereby protecting the air of the neighborhoods where they reside.

During this Teach-In, we heard from:
Emmitt Mendoza-Gaspar, Chief of Staff for AM Marcela Mitaynes
Sam Becker of the Environmental Defense Fund
Jaqi Cohen of the Tristate Transporation Campaign
Antonio Rosario of the Teamsters

We then heard from the ElectrifyNY coalition about how you can take action to make this crucial bill a reality this session.

Join the Fight for Clean Deliveries: https://p2a.co/E83CRWT

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Pass the NY HEAT Act NOW

New Yorkers need cleaner heat and lower bills. Tell Gov. Hochul, Speaker Heastie, and the NY Legislature to include the NY HEAT Act in the budget.

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ElectrifyNY & EDF Release “Warehouse Boom” Impacts Report

A new report to be released on January 18 by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) traces the growth of mega-warehouses in New York communities, driven in part by the e-commerce boom.
Following the release of a national report, the release of the New York Proximity Mapping Report shows the warehouse boom’s unequal health burden on New York communities.

ElectrifyNY, EDF, and NY State legislators joined for a press conference highlighting the report’s findings and the need for legislation like the Clean Deliveries Act. The Clean Deliveries Act would direct the state to conduct a review of emissions related to large warehouses and require warehouse operators to choose from an array of actions to minimize pollution.

Access the full report: https://globalcleanair.org/academic/report-one-in-four-new-york-state-residents-lives-within-half-a-mile-of-a-mega-warehouse/
Take action with ElectrifyNY to pass the Clean Deliveries Act: https://bit.ly/cleandeliveries

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Making It Real: Implementing NYS Climate Act through Entrepreneurship & Workforce Development

NOTE: Due to technical difficulties, parts of this program were unable to be recorded. We apologize for the inconvenience.

In 2019, New York passed its landmark climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act)—still one of the strongest climate laws in the nation. Where are we now and what is needed to achieve the CLCPA’s carbon reduction targets and achieve equitable economic benefits?

Successful implementation will require a combination of policy leadership and thoughtful investment in entrepreneurs, local innovators and the developing workforce. Although New York already ranks third in the nation for clean energy jobs, the Empire State has only scratched the surface when it comes to its potential in the clean energy economy, and sharing the benefits with all New Yorkers.

For the state to meet this moment—possibly the largest economic opportunity since the Industrial Revolution—we must come together.

This event, part of Climate Week NYC, included a welcome address from Anne Reynolds – Executive Director, Alliance for Clean Energy New York (ACE NY), Keynote address by Assemblymember Khaleel Anderson – Assembly District 31. A Clean Energy Accelerators & Entrepreneurs Solutions Showcase featuring Cassie Schuttrumpf – Program Manager, Venture for Climate Tech, Daniel Cohen – Founder, UCharge, David Goldstein – Founder & CEO, Hydronic Shell Technologies, Jose Porro – Founder & CEO, Cobalt Water. And a Career Pathways & Workforce Development Panel moderated by Uchenna Bright – Northeast Advocate, E2 featuring Charles Callaway – Director of Workforce Development, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Carter Strickland – Chief Sustainability Officer & Executive Director of Climate Action, SUNY, Tonya Gayle – Executive Director, Green City Force and Vincent Albanese – Director of Policy & Public Affairs, LiUNA.

Please note that, due to technical difficulties, we removed several inaudible portions of the recording. Quality issues remain and some portions of the recording may still require increased volume or using subtitles while watching. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and will strive to do better for next year’s event.

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DAC Comment Period

New York’s Climate Act recognizes that climate change doesn’t affect all communities equally. The Climate Act charged the Climate Justice Working Group (CJWG) with the development of criteria to identify disadvantaged communities (DACs) to ensure that frontline and otherwise underserved communities benefit from the state’s historic transition to cleaner, greener sources of energy, reduced pollution and cleaner air, and economic opportunities.

A draft of the DAC criteria was released in late 2021 and is now open for public comments through Thursday, July 7th. It is important to weigh in on this aspect of the Scoping Plan to ensure no one gets left behind during New York’s transition to a clean energy economy.

This NYCP Teach-In featured:
– Sameer Ranade, Climate Justice Advisor, Climate Action Council of NYSERDA
– Jen Metzger, NYCP Senior Policy Advisor and former NY State Senator
– Sonal Jessel, Director of Policy, WE ACT for Environmental Justice

This event was moderated by Ibrahim Abdul-Matin and Betta Broad.

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Hudson Valley Draft Scoping Plan Hearing Press Conference

Watch us at the all-electric New Paltz Firehouse with local leaders and climate allies, rallying to support a statewide shift to a clean energy economy before the Hudson Valley’s Draft Scoping Plan Hearing

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New York’s Proposed Climate Plan and Why the Hudson Valley Needs to Weigh In

This Teach-In, sponsored by New Yorkers for Clean Power and Ulster Activists, is focused on what’s in the New York Climate Action Council’s Scoping Plan, why it matters to the Hudson Valley, and how you can participate in the public comment process happening now.

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Implementing New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act

The NYS Climate Action Council has released, for public comment, a much-awaited draft plan to implement New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), the most ambitious climate law in the country. Join us for a Zoom presentation and Q&A with Jen Metzger, who will give us an overview of the plan and issues and recommendations that are important for communities to know about and weigh in on. She will also highlight actions that state and local governments need to begin taking now if New York is to reach its emissions targets.

Jen served in the State Senate in 2019-2020, where she was a leading voice for action to tackle climate change and move away from reliance on fossil fuels. She was an active member of the Senate’s workgroup on the CLCPA, passed in 2019, and she led efforts in the State Legislature to create a permanent ban on fracking, passed as part of the budget in 2020.

Prior to her election to the State Senate, Jen served for over a decade in local government in the Town of Rosendale, and co-founded and directed Citizens for Local Power, an organization dedicated to helping communities shift to an equitable, locally-based clean energy economy. She is currently Senior Policy Advisor to New Yorkers for Clean Power, and also serves on the NYS Cannabis Control Board, which is charged with creating a framework for cannabis policy grounded in public health, equity, restorative justice, and sustainability. She has a PhD in political science, with a specialization in environmental politics and policy.

This event is brought to you through the combined efforts of the New York State Climate Reality Project Coalition, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Riverkeeper, Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, New Yorkers for Clean Power, and Scenic Hudson.

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