(The Center Square) — A coalition of green groups are taking New York state to court in an effort to force the Hochul administration to implement a 2019 climate change law.
A lawsuit filed in the state Supreme Court asks justices to order the state Department of Environmental Conservation to issue draft regulations to implement the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act “immediately” and to declare that by failing to do so, the agency “has violated the climate law and the state constitutional right to clean air.”
The climate law, signed by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in 2019, requires New York to reduce its excess greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050, compared to 1990 levels. The regulations, billed at the time as the most aggressive environmental protections in the nation, also called for planting more trees and capturing carbon for storage underground to cut carbon emissions.
“However, with only five years until the first deadline, New York’s emissions are rising rather than falling,” lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote in the 34-page complaint. “The state must not only reverse this trend but must rapidly decrease emissions in the next few years.”
The plaintiffs point to a January DEC decision not to release draft environmental regulations for updated clean air standards this year as planned. The agency hasn’t provided a date for their release, the litigants said.
Green groups say New York is suffering from rising temperatures, more intense air pollution, health impacts, and more frequent and more severe extreme weather events such as storms, flooding, heat waves and wildfires.
The Trump administration is also rolling back federal environmental protections and climate change funding for states as part of efforts to reduce taxpayer “fraud and waste” in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is headed by former New York congressman Lee Zeldin.
“In the face of the current federal assault on climate and environmental protections, it is more important than ever that New York meets its statutory obligations to protect its residents from harmful greenhouse gases and air pollution,” said Roger Downs, Conservation Director of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter. “New York must demonstrate its leadership and set an example for other states by advancing critical climate protections.”
Rachel Spector, senior attorney at Earthjustice, said regulations spurring the shift to “zero emission” buildings and transportation “will help New Yorkers breathe cleaner air, live healthier lives, and move away from burning fossil fuels.”
“New York’s climate law charges DEC to issue regulations that will reduce climate emissions statewide, and the state has failed to do so,” she said in a statement. “These regulations are not just a technicality — they are the primary means of ensuring the state meets its climate mandates.”
Meanwhile, New York is facing a lawsuit filed by a group of 22 Republican attorneys general over a state law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay for alleged damages caused by climate change.
Republican, business and industry groups argue that the law will do little to blunt the impact of climate change while passing on the costs to the state’s consumers in the form of higher energy bills.
