Why Is New York Breaking Its Climate Promises? |
This week, New York might do something no climate-leading state has done, even in the Trump era: weaken its landmark climate law.
In 2019, New York adopted among the country’s most ambitious targets: greenhouse gas regulations by 2024, a 40% emissions cut by 2030, and an 85% cut by 2050. The state has already missed its 2024 goal, and announced it will also miss its goal in 2030. Now, as a Democratic governor and a Democratic supermajority finalize a state budget in Albany, the reported deal would dramatically roll this law back.
This is a stunning reversal for Governor Kathy Hochul, who was named to the TIME100 Climate list in 2025, co-chaired the U.S. Climate Alliance, and now sits on its executive committee. Those credentials rest on a premise she is about to abandon: states must lead when the federal government retreats.
As always, the devil is in the details. The proposed changes would extend the deadline for greenhouse gas regulations from 2024 to 2028. It would also replace the binding 2030 emissions target with a softer 2040 commitment and adopt a methane accounting method that makes fossil-fuel emissions look smaller without actually reducing them. The 2050 target remains, but the deal weakens the pressure to act now, allowing dangerous greenhouse gas pollution to amass in the intervening quarter-century.New York is one of 10 states with binding, economy-wide climate targets, alongside California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. All face similar affordability pressures, strained grids, and federal headwinds. None has walked back its targets. If lawmakers, who are deliberating now, agree to water down the law with the imminent budget vote, New York would be first.
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