New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is poised to win a significant rollback of New York’s landmark 2019 climate law, leaving environmentalists furious with a governor they once considered a major ally in the battle against climate change.
Hochul, a Democrat, spent months urging state lawmakers to scale back New York’s nation-leading climate mandates, which required the state to cut greenhouse-gas emissions 40% by 2030, and 85% in 2050.
As she announced a “general agreement” on a $268 billion state budget last week, the governor said she had gotten much of what she wanted.
“New York has led, and will continue to lead, on clean energy and climate,” Hochul said Thursday. “But reality has been harsh. We cannot meet the current timelines without driving energy costs higher. The facts bear that out, and I cannot let that happen.”
Hochul’s budget deal calls for scaling back the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act in two key ways.
First, the 2030 mandate will be eliminated and replaced with a new goal of a 60% emissions cut by 2040, according to the governor’s office. The mandated 85% cut by 2050 will remain in place.
The second rollback is potentially more consequential. Hochul says the state will adopt a new method for calculating the impact of its emissions, assessing their effect over 100 years instead of the current 20 years. The move will instantly put the state far closer to meeting the emissions target without making any meaningful changes.
Environmentalists view the move as a betrayal. It comes less than seven months after Time magazine named Hochul one of the world’s most influential climate leaders of 2025.
“We really do see the governor as having leaned in, in a very undemocratic way, to force the Legislature to change what is the law of New York based in science,” said Stefan Edel, executive director of NY Renews, a coalition of organizations that successfully pushed for the 2019 law.
The governor’s relationship with climate change activists has steadily deteriorated in recent years.
In the early days of Hochul’s term, the activists were pleased with her administration’s embrace of the 2019 law. That included the long-awaited release of a “scoping plan” that laid out a roadmap for meeting the climate goals.
But the Hochul administration then repeatedly delayed regulations to implement the law, which would have created a “cap and invest” program where polluters would be forced to purchase credits from the state if they exceed a limit on emissions. Those delays prompted a lawsuit from environmentalists. A judge ruled against the state, which is now appealing.
Then last year, the Hochul administration approved a key water permit for a natural-gas pipeline off New York City’s coast, which the state had previously blocked.
The governor’s push to roll back the 2019 law was the final straw, Edel said.
“I think that what's happened over the last four months is going to permanently impact how people view her,” he said. “If she is a climate leader in this moment, it is in the wrong direction.”
Climate activists are holding out hope that they can thwart Hochul’s plan.
The Legislature would have to approve the plan as part of the state budget. And although legislative leaders have agreed to the broad strokes of the changes, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie railed against the governor for announcing a budget deal when many aspects of the spending plan remain under negotiation.
“Even on the policies that she put out there today, some of these things are still incomplete,” said Heastie, a Bronx Democrat. “We don't even have final language on (the climate law).”
Hochul, meanwhile, says environmentalists need to live in reality.
The governor’s administration released a memo earlier this year that assessed the potential cost of implementing the cap-and-invest program to meet the 2030 climate mandate, which the state was not on track to achieve. Gasoline would increase by an estimated $2.23 a gallon and some New York City households would pay an additional $2,500 a year in utility costs, according to the memo authored by the New York State Energy Research Development Authority.
Hochul, who is running for re-election this year on a platform of making New York more affordable, said that kind of cost increase isn’t feasible. Environmental organizations say the cost estimates are outlandish and based on an unrealistic version of the cap-and-invest program.
The governor pushed back against the suggestion that she’s no longer a leader on climate change.
“This is what leadership looks like — when you're the one person in the state who looks at the reality of the world as it is, and not looking at it through these rose-colored glasses,” she said Thursday. “So I'm demonstrating the hard leadership that this moment requires.”
Hochul’s administration will be required to finalize regulations by 2028 to put the state on course to meeting the new emission-cutting mandates. Her office says the law will include a range of potential programs the administration can pick from to meet those goals, including a cap-and-invest method.
Business organizations, which include companies that would have been forced to buy credits under the previously proposed cap-and-invest program, say Hochul is making the right decision. That includes the Business Council, the state’s largest business lobbying group.
“We strongly support the reforms that have been reported,” spokesperson Pat Bailey said.
State lawmakers are due to return to the Capitol on Monday to continue negotiating a final state budget.
Rosemary Misdary contributed reporting.
