New York Passes Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act
The bill aims to address and mitigate the effects of climate change by cutting greenhouse gases, diverting the state’s energy reliance to renewable energy and creating green jobs across the state.
Image courtesy of The New York State Senate
The New York State Senate has signed one of the most comprehensive and aggressive climate change legislation in the country, passing the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act with a 62-to-0 vote. It now only lacks Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signature.
The new legislation will cut pollution across economic sectors, put New York on a path to net-zero emissions, codify New York’s clean energy goals and help ensure an equitable transition to a low-carbon future. Furthermore, the safety and health of disadvantaged communities will be prioritized, controlling the potential regressive impacts of future climate change mitigation.
The S6599 bill aims to address and reduce the effects of climate change by drastically cutting greenhouse gases, diverting the state’s energy reliance to renewable energy and creating green jobs across New York State. Specifically, a 22-member Climate Action Council will be formed to design a program to achieve the following:
- source 70 percent of their electricity from renewable energy by 2030, up from the current 50 percent by 2030
- reach 100 percent zero-carbon electricity by 2040
- deploy 6,000 megawatts of distributed solar energy by 2025; 3,000 megawatts of energy storage by 2030 and 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035.
New York, California and Massachusetts are some of the country’s most committed states to fighting the effects of climate change. Most of the mandates have been passed this year, with a target set on 2045 or 2050.
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