Hochul Steamrolled New York’s Climate Movement. Now Green Groups Are Recalculating.

ALBANY, New York — Gov. Kathy Hochul weakened the strongest climate law in the country this year, bulldozing an environmental movement that spent years pushing for its passage.

But Hochul (D) — who hammered on cost concerns tied to the 2019 law — isn’t likely to pay a tangible political price. A left-flank primary challenge collapsed after she was endorsed by the state's most prominent progressive, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and she’s now facing off against a pro-fracking Republican opponent opposed to renewables.

That leaves environmental advocates in New York split over what to do next: keep fighting Hochul over her energy agenda, or work with her and try to shape what she’s still willing to do to slow climate change.

Despite their bitter defeat, many institutional green groups are picking the latter as she faces voters in November.

“I certainly wouldn't call it a breakup over the [climate law]. I see this a bit as a spat, someone sleeping on the couch, but definitely not a divorce. So there is a way back,” said Eric Miller, regional director for the Northeast and mid-Atlantic with Evergreen Action.

The “spat” included harsh words from the governor’s spokesperson about “head in the sand”advocates and scathing criticisms of Hochul. The moderate Democrat, who touts her environmental credentials regularly, said delayed deadlines for emissions reduction targets in the climate law were necessary to address rising costs and federal headwinds.

Hochul’s move to pump the brakes on signature climate policies reflects a larger reckoning facing Democratic leaders across the country as they struggle to address rising energy demand fueled by AI data centers, voter frustration over high utility bills and the federal government’s outright hostility to climate-friendly policies. Immediate pocketbook concerns and relentless Republican criticism of clean energy subsidies have taken their toll nationally, leaving a weakened environmental movement searching for a new direction.

Democratic governors like New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill and Maryland’s Wes Moore have moved to shift clean energy funding to provide near-term bill relief, while others like Rhode Island’s Dan McKee have proposed delaying renewable targets.

None went as far as Hochul. The governor’s changes include pushing back a deadline to write emissions regulations from 2024 to the end of 2028, effectively neutering a 2030 target in favor of a less rigid 2040 goal, and changing how emissions are calculated to make it easier to hit the numbers. That followed her unilateral delay of a mandate to electrify new buildings, a deal to keep a gas-powered cryptocurrency mining operation open and approval of a new gas pipeline, moves that also angered green groups.

Some environmentalists fear Democratic leaders in other states will take their cue from New York and forge ahead with more moves that delay action on clean energy policies and programs.

“She wants to bash climate policy and then get lauded as a climate leader,” said Stephan Edel, executive director of the NY Renews coalition, which worked for years to pass the state’s climate law and was instrumental in drafting the proposal it was based on.

“I don't anticipate us, as a coalition, politely sitting down with the governor to see how we can advance her affordability agenda when her affordability agenda seems to center natural gas and nuclear,” Edel added.

But for now, some see no option but to embrace the governor and help her promote the clean energy elements of her agenda.

Hochul’s primary challenger — Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who’d positioned himself to her left on green issues — dropped out of the contest after failing to gain traction. Her Republican opponent, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, has done little to woo environmentalists, promising to oppose renewables like wind and solar and allow fracking if elected.

Hochul’s embrace of a first-in-the-nation statewide moratorium on construction of large data centers has provided an opportunity to reach for the reset button.

Shortly after the up-to-one-year moratorium was announced, the New York League of Conservation Voters endorsed the governor in her race against Blakeman.

“There is no contest here between the two candidates about who is better for the environment,” said Julie Tighe, the president and CEO of the New York League of Conservation Voters.

There’s a behind-the-scenes effort to rebuild and strengthen the relationship between Hochul and New York’s more mainstream environmental movement, according to six environmental leaders. It’s focused on building political power and supporting policies that can align with the governor’s affordability agenda.

An organizer familiar with some of these discussions, granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations, says there’s interest in working with the governor to build as much clean energy capacity as possible to drive down bills and support reliability.

“There's a lot of environmental and clean energy progress to be made with Gov. Hochul's administration, but that's going to take continued working together,” Miller said.

The desire for a reset is partly born of Hochul’s political strength. Polls show her leading Blakeman by double digits, and she enjoys a massive cash advantage over the GOP challenger. The environmental movement in New York, meanwhile, is more weakened and fractured than it was when winning passage of the landmark climate law and blocking fracking and pipelines.

It’s an overture Hochul’s administration is open to.

"Governor Hochul has been a national clean energy and climate leader and is proud to have worked closely with the environmental community to deliver on such projects as the nation's first utility-scale offshore wind farm while also meeting our solar goals ahead of schedule,” said Ken Lovett, a spokesperson for Hochul. “While we might not always agree on every policy, we have always had direct, honest, and collaborative conversations that allow us to move together toward the shared goal of a more sustainable future."

The loss of the climate law fight, on the heels of other decisions by Hochul, led to some soul searching for environmentalists.

No longer pressing for long-term, far-off goal setting, environmentalists are instead focusing on implementation battles that require grappling with the question of who pays for the immediate costs of transitioning off fossil fuels. Many are working to focus on the cost benefits of new renewables compared with volatile fossil fuel prices. They’re pointing to skyrocketing prices due to the Iran war and tapping into the focus on affordability that’s become the mantra of Hochul and other Democrats across the country.

“The work of the environmental movement is to build more political power that can contend with money that goes into misleading narratives that pit climate action and environmental protections against affordability or feasibility,” said Vanessa Fajans-Turner, executive director of Environmental Advocates NY. “It has to be about people, households, jobs and understandably affordability in the near, medium and long term.”

The advocates are working against the governor's own public statements. For weeks she traveled the state warning that the climate law, before she changed it, would raise costs for New Yorkers, and that message is now one thing they have to overcome to sell clean energy as the cheaper option.

On the campaign trail, Blakeman has criticized Hochul’s energy policies, raising concerns about the use of farmland for renewables and high residential electric rates.

“As governor, I will cut your utility bills in half by embracing every reliable power source — including today’s nuclear energy, which is now safe, small, and even powerful enough to run naval ships, and open the doors to extracting Natural Gas from our own supply rather than buying it from Pennsylvania,” Blakeman said.

Prominent environmental groups have lauded the governor for her efforts to defend offshore wind from President Donald Trump, whose administration has worked tirelessly to halt projects and stop future developments. They point to the state’s progress in building small-scale solar and Hochul’s eventual implementation of congestion pricing in Manhattan — after abruptly pausing it before the 2024 elections.

Tighe of the New York League of Conservation Voters also noted Hochul’s support for investments in water infrastructure, passage of a $4.2 billion environmental bond act, offshore wind advocacy and allocation of $2 billion over the past two years for a new climate fund. “She has been really continuing to make big investments, and I think she doesn't get enough credit for some of those things,” Tighe said.

Environmentalists farther to the left remain skeptical. Some want to see what steps Hochul ultimately takes on data centers after her moratorium.

“I hope that this pause is a sign that she's shifting course, but I think we'll know a lot more in the months to come,” said Alex Beauchamp, Northern region director for Food and Water Watch.

Beauchamp said he doesn’t consider Hochul an environmentalist, despite how she often publicly identifies herself as one. "If people believed it, you wouldn't have to say it every speech,” he said.

Data centers are also a politically potent issue far beyond the traditional environmental movement, with bipartisan opposition mounting across the country amid concerns about the impacts of the massive projects. The leading Democratic candidate for governor in Wisconsin, Francesca Hong, has made opposition to data centers the top focus of her campaign, while Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida signed legislation aimed at ensuring data centers don’t raise costs for other electricity customers.

“This is such a non-partisan issue, there are communities all across the state that are up in arms about data centers — red and blue alike,” said Democratic state Sen. Rachel May, a frequent advocate for climate action. “She’s got a strong interest in seeking out that middle ground where she can. I think this is a piece of the climate puzzle and I’m glad she’s looking at this … I think the longtime climate activists aren’t going to give her a pass just because of this.”

WE Act for Environmental Justice, which advocates for clean energy policies that benefit low-income communities and people of color, hasn’t had engagement with the governor’s office after they were a party on the lawsuit Hochul cited as the impetus for changing the climate law.

That lawsuit challenged the state’s failure to issue regulations to achieve the emissions reduction targets in the timeframe required in the 2019 climate law. A judge sided with environmentalists and ordered the Hochul administration to issue regulations — but it proved a pyrrhic victory as the governor instead moved to rewrite the law.

WE Act is open to working with Hochul and takes the data center moratorium as a positive sign the governor is prioritizing a clean energy transition, said Anhthu Hoang, the group’s deputy director and general counsel.

“She is our leader, and she needs to take that mantle seriously,” Hoang said. “We support her fully. We hope that she will do the right thing, but our support is also contingent on her doing the right thing. “