Seventeen current and former New York state lawmakers filed a court brief this month admitting they knew the state’s sweeping green energy mandates would raise energy costs when they voted for the law seven years ago — and they’re asking a judge to enforce it anyway.
The admission came in an April 17 amicus curiae brief backing a lawsuit by climate change activists who want Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration to fully implement the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019. The lawsuit was filed after Hochul’s administration began delaying compliance, citing concerns that the mandates were inflating utility bills and walloping ratepayers.
In the brief, the lawmakers wrote that the legislation “directly acknowledges that the transition to a clean energy economy may impose costs and affect certain sectors more than others,” the New York Post reports. They also admitted the law recognized “the risk of job displacement” and “adverse effects on small businesses.”
Despite those acknowledgments, the filing argues the state Department of Environmental Conservation should carry out the law’s emissions reduction goals rather than use cost concerns as a reason to stall.
Signers of the brief include Senate Health Committee Chairman Gustavo Rivera, Assembly Housing Committee Chair Linda Rosenthal, and Democratic Socialists of America Assembly members Emily Gallagher, Diana Moreno, and Phara Souffrant Forrest.
The numbers behind the law are stark. A New York State Energy Research and Development Authority analysis found that without changes to the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, New Yorkers could face gas prices at the pump rising by $2.23 a gallon by 2031. Natural gas costs for New York City households could climb to $2,300 a year. Upstate households could pay more than $4,000 a year.
A state Supreme Court judge had already ordered Hochul’s administration to enforce the law. The administration filed an appeal while negotiating amendments, which would likely render the underlying lawsuit moot.
A separate survey conducted around the same time found that roughly 70 percent of New Yorkers fear green energy mandates will make their electricity bills worse.
