Your Pressure is Working!
New York Has the Solutions
Thanks to Your Action, We have Dedicated State Legislators Refusing to Accept a Dirty Backroom Deal with Governor Hochul’s Fossil Fuel Agenda
Keep Calling Assembly and Senate Leadership to Make Sure They Hold the Line
Assembly:
Speaker Carl Heastie (HAY-stee): 518-455-3791
Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes: 518-455-5005
Senate:
Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins: 518-455-2585
Deputy Majority Leader Sen Michael Gianaris (gee-uh-NAIR-iss): (518) 455-3486
“Hi, I’m ________ and I’m calling to urge ________ to stand strong against Governor Hochul’s proposed rollbacks to the climate law. Now more than ever, we need clean and renewable energy to protect New Yorkers from volatile fossil fuel prices and the worst impacts of climate change. Loopholes and accounting tricks won’t drive the good energy policy that we desperately need.”
Every day more voices are speaking up to protect New York’s landmark climate law from Governor Hochul’s proposed devastating rollbacks. During her tenure as Governor, she has dragged her feet and kicked the can down the road on building public renewable projects. She has also allowed dangerous fracked gas pipelines into New York State, all while utility bills keep rising.
YOUR voice has made all the difference! Thousands are taking to the streets, emailing, calling, and using all the tools at their disposal to tell the legislature in no uncertain terms to defend it. Since the Governor announced her plan to undermine the law in early March:
New Yorkers have sent and placed more than 33,350 emails and calls to elected officials;
Approximately 3,400 have taken to the streets in rallies and other mobilizations;
More than 100 local elected officials have voiced their opposition in a letter to legislative leaders;
100 faith leaders sent a letter to Governor Hochul on Earth Day characterizing upholding of the climate law an economic issue, a public health issue, a justice issue, and most of all, a moral issue;
Dozens of scientists from all over the world signed a letter in support of CLCPA’s greenhouse gas accounting methodology
Did you know that when the budget is late, legislators can have their pay withheld? One of the ways the Governor gains leverage to force a dirty deal.
Sane Energy was in Albany this week, and we hand-delivered 71 personalized letters to legislators who are courageously holding the line for our climate law, to the detriment of their own wallets, as their pay can be withheld until a budget is passed. We want them to know that we see them and we are grateful for them. It’s important to keep up those calls so they know we are watching.
ALBANY Times Union Speaking TRUTH to Power
We were very heartened to see the Albany Times Union, the paper of record at our state capital, publish an editorial laying out New York State’s dereliction of duty in allowing renewable projects to be canceled, and pushing our methane accounting and climate targets into the future, which we are endangering. Please read it.
Next Week, We are Going Back to Albany to Celebrate SOLUTIONS - Because New York Already has Them
Tuesday (4/28): Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) Advocacy & Media Day
Fighting to scale up one of the fastest, most effective climate solutions we have. Weatherizing homes cuts energy waste, lowers utility bills, reduces emissions, and keeps families safer and healthier year-round. It’s a win for affordability, public health, and the climate, and it needs to be funded at scale.
Wednesday (4/29): SUNNY Act Advocacy Day
The SUNNY Act (Solar Up NOW NY) just passed the State Senate unanimously, proving there’s real momentum for policies that lower bills and build clean energy right here at home. When federal support is cut, leaders don’t run, they solve. New York can move forward anyway by investing in solutions like balcony solar that put power directly in people’s hands.
Now the bill heads to the Assembly, and we need to show up and make it clear: we’re ready. Join Sane Energy, Climate Families, Third Act, Solar United Neighbors and Green CoOp Council in Albany on April 29th to help pass the SUNNY Act in the Assembly, cut utility costs, and power a cleaner future.
Center for Public Enterprise Recommends:
New York State, Build Public Power!
Private developers are ready to cancel 3GW worth of unfinished renewable energy projects in New York State because they won’t turn as much of a profit after tariffs and additional costs. Rather than losing out on all that renewable energy, the state should take it off their hands and finish the projects so we can make the transition and start meeting our climate goals. Sane Energy isn’t the only ones who think so; the Center for Public Enterprise just released a memo saying just that.
We want renewable energy projects, and we know that the best way to build them is through the New York Power Authority so we don’t have to worry about the profit margins of fickle developers or the greed of corporate monopolies. Let’s make sure $200 million is in the budget to fund Public Power NOW!
We hope you celebrated Earth Day this week in whatever way felt right for you. We tabled at the Brooklyn Academy of Music at the performance of Dear Everything: A Musical Uprising for the Earth is a folk-pop musical created by V (formerly Eve Ensler) and directed by Diane Paulus, focusing on youth activism against the climate crisis. Starring Jane Fonda as narrator, the show follows teenager Sophia as she rallies peers to protect local forests from greedy adults. From the stage, the Dear Everything Youth Council announced that Sane Energy received a generous grant to support our work - work that, of course, we cannot do without you.
With fire and fight,
Kim, Elliot, Mike, JK, and Claire