‘hurting Peoples’ Pocketbooks’: Hochul Pushes To Pare Back Landmark Climate Law

ALBANY, New York — New York’s Democratic governor wants to weaken one of the nation’s most ambitious climate laws in the name of affordability.

It’s a major shift for Gov. Kathy Hochul, who once championed New York’s climate efforts on a global stage and rejected permits for gas power plants. The moderate Democrat has laid the groundwork to seek changes in secretive, closed-door budget negotiations in Albany in the coming weeks.

“There were so many unforeseen factors," Hochul told reporters on Monday, speaking of the 2019 climate law that set aggressive targets for curbing pollutants. "There's going to be enormous costs."

If Hochul succeeds in revising the 2019 law, it could be the most significant rollback on climate action in a liberal bastion since progressives embraced the “Green New Deal” concept.

Hochul’s political stock has risen significantly as she’s executed a pronounced pivot on energy policy that’s also included embracing a controversial gas pipeline and delaying a mandate she once championed for new buildings to electrify. Her more liberal primary challenger — Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who’s lambasted her environmental stances — dropped out of the race earlier this year after failing to garner significant support. Even staunch leftists like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani are backing Hochul’s reelection campaign. And polling shows her drubbing her likely GOP opponent — although November remains a long way off.

“She's recalibrating, and I think it's actually a smart way to frame it,” said Laura Curran, former Democratic Nassau County executive, arguing that Hochul’s shift will play well in key battlegrounds like Long Island. “At the end of the day, that's what people care about more than anything else: How much they have to pay for stuff.”

Hochul’s positioning reflects a national shift among Democrats on energy as they refocus on affordability amid near-term implementation challenges and seemingly insurmountable federal opposition to clean energy. Likely 2028 presidential contenders — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and California Gov. Gavin Newsom — have also slowed or abandoned some climate-friendly proposals.

Hochul’s shift could become a blueprint for Democrats across the country as they desperately try to convince voters they’re aggressively tackling cost-of-living concerns — including energy bills — ahead of the midterm elections.

But environmental advocates point toward Democratic victories in governors races in New Jersey and Virginia where candidates embraced clean energy and climate policies as part of their affordability messaging last year. And while California has retreated on some policies in the face of federal opposition, it’s moving to link its carbon market with Washington state, where environmentalists beat back a ballot measure to overturn cap-and-trade in 2024.

Hochul is still pushing for investments in clean energy, battling President Donald Trump over offshore wind projects, supporting a transmission line to bring clean energy to New York City and celebrating achievement of the state’s solar goal.

"Under Governor Hochul, New York has been, and continues to be a climate and clean energy leader,” said Hochul spokesperson Ken Lovett. “Her all-of-the-above approach that includes an array of energy options, including more renewables, is designed to keep the lights on and costs down for New Yorkers."

Many Democratic state lawmakers are loath to change key targets in the climate law and argue it’s a false dichotomy to suggest that policymakers need to choose between aggressively tackling environmental issues and looking out for constituents’ pocketbooks.

“The conversation she’s having now sounds to people more like retreating than providing leadership,” said state Sen. Kevin Parker, chair of the Energy Committee. “We should be in our sustainable energy bag right now.”

But Hochul’s push to change the climate law in the budget — which was first reported by POLITICO — has backing from powerful business groups and labor unions who warn that failing to scale back the aggressive targets would raise consumer costs.

“The timelines have to change. They lack common sense,” said Bob Duffy, former Democratic lieutenant governor and current head of the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce. "They’re hurting people’s pocketbooks.”

Calculating costs

Hochul has been publicly raising concerns about the law’s potential costs for years and launched an unsuccessful salvo to change it previously in 2023. The governor has cited rising costs and supply chain disruptions from the pandemic, inflation, tariffs and Trump’s opposition to clean energy.

In recent weeks, the governor’s administration has briefed key lawmakers on the issue and she’s raised it in closed-door meetings with legislative leaders, although she’s yet to publicly put forth any specific proposals for what changes she’d like to see enacted.

Her administration also released a memo last week outlining a worst-case hypothetical scenario. The memo analyzed a carbon pricing system to achieve the law’s near-term goals and concluded it would increase gasoline prices by $2.23 cents per gallon by 2031 and home heating fuel costs more than $3,000 annually for upstate families.

Business groups — including the state’s trucking association and manufacturing groups — quickly offered additional public support for changing the law, citing the memo. The outpouring demonstrates the governor’s alignment with a key part of her political and donor base.

“We strongly oppose [the climate law] in its current form,” said David Fisher, president of the New York Farm Bureau. “Compliance would mean achieving near-impossible renewable energy targets at a pace not proven feasible nor realistic. It would also impose serious financial burdens on all consumers.”

Environmental groups and Democrats who back the state’s climate law say the Hochul administration’s memo presents an unrealistic scenario that no one is pushing for. They argue the law hasn’t been fully implemented and volatile fossil fuel prices are to blame for recent price shocks.

“The [climate law] is the path forward to lowering bills and getting our economy transitioned in an affordable way,” said Eric Walker, energy justice senior policy manager at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. “The governor is well intentioned in trying to protect ratepayers but is choosing to opt in to a story that’s just not true.”

The administration touting eye-popping pocketbook impacts of a signature Democratic policy also risks handing Republicans a potent cudgel in upcoming elections where the governor, every state lawmaker and swing district House members are on the ballot.

The governor’s Republican challenger, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman — who she led by 20 points in the most recent poll — has hammered Hochul over high energy costs.

“As Governor, I’ll stop Hochul’s $4,100 shakedown and cut your current electricity bill in half,” Blakeman wrote on social media after the state’s memo came out.

Hochul campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki linked Blakeman to Trump’s energy policies.

“Bruce Blakeman agrees with Donald Trump on everything, even as this president tries to kill critical energy projects that grow New York jobs and make power reliable and affordable for New York families,” he said.

Republicans across the state have long criticized Albany’s climate policies as the “Green New Scam.”

“For years, my Republican colleagues and I have been saying that the green energy plan pushed by Albany would place unsustainable costs on ratepayers, and now we have proof,” said Assemblymember Phil Palmesano.

Some moderate Democrats agree that the pace of the state’s clean energy efforts needs to be reconsidered.

Assemblymember Patrick Burke, a Democrat from the Buffalo area who won a competitive election in 2024, said he’s open to discussing changes to the climate law. But he said it’s causing divisions among Democratic lawmakers.

Burke said the focus should be on costs driven by investor-owned utilities and that since the climate law has largely not been implemented, it is not responsible for higher bills.

“We're just falling into what the Republicans want us to fall into,” Burke said. “Can we as Democrats be the adults in the room about environmental policy and talk about it honestly and talk about costs or are we going to default because it's an election cycle, and the easiest thing to do is sort of absorb the Republican argument and then neutralize it in policy.”

Looming budget battle

Hochul has a history of stutter-stepping on controversial policies tied to higher costs. She also delayed implementation of a fee on traffic into congested areas of Manhattan ahead of the 2024 elections before ultimately moving it forward at a lower rate. She briefly pushed a ban on gas furnace replacements before abandoning it amid backlash. Hochul also pushed a mandate for all-electric new buildings and then delayed its implementation last year.

Hochul’s officials have cited an ongoing lawsuit from frustrated environmental advocates as the main driver of her push to change the law. A state court judge ruled the state is violating the law by failing to issue regulations to achieve the targets.

The judge’s order is stayed pending the state’s appeal.

Hochul enjoys outsize power in New York’s byzantine budget process. It’s also often the easiest way to get lawmakers on board with controversial policies because they vote for the entire package, including popular items like school funding.

The state’s deadline for a budget is April 1. Some lawmakers are pushing back against including climate law changes in the budget, arguing it requires a more extensive and public debate.

“This would be a very, very disruptive thing to enter into the budget discussions,” said Democratic Sen. Pete Harckham, chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee and an opponent of weakening the law. “Let's not open a Pandora's Box.”