what's happened, and what's next:

Hello Friend,

 

Thanks to the dedicated work of coalition partners and members like you, New York’s 2023 legislative session was the most productive for the climate in years.

Unfortunately, the Assembly left us with a near miss on the NY HEAT Act. But with its passage in the Senate and 64 Assembly sponsors, we’re primed to push it over the line as soon as next session starts.

Here’s what our Renewable Heat Now campaign had to say: it’s worth reading in full as a reminder of just how much we’ve won, and that we’re in a similar position with NY HEAT this year as we were with AEBA and BPRA last year. Close to winning:

 

New York’s climate movement won historic victories this legislative session with the passage of the All-Electric Building and Build Public Renewables Acts, the funding to begin decarbonizing state-owned buildings in the budget, not to mention our all-hands-on-deck fight to successfully protect our Climate Act from being gutted.

The NY HEAT Act (S.2016A/A.4592A), the cornerstone of our legislative package, came tantalizingly close to becoming law, first in the budget and then in the regular session, with passage in the NYS Senate, but fell short in the end without a commitment on the part of the Governor or the Assembly Speaker to uphold and carry out the requirements of the Climate Act.

 

New Yorkers will now face another year of unnecessary utility bill hikes to pay for fracked gas infrastructure. Leaving the job unfinished, with much of the state engulfed in unprecedented smoke from massive wildfires in Canada, showed irresponsible disregard for the rapidly worsening climate crisis.

 

At a time when low-income New Yorkers are forced to spend more than 9% of their income on energy bills, the NY HEAT Act would bring those costs under control and save the most vulnerable New Yorkers up to $75 per month. The gas utilities have lobbied hard against passage of NY HEAT, and now can continue to build out even more unnecessary fracked gas pipelines and force ordinary New Yorkers to pay them well over $200 million a year to do it.

Though the Governor and the Assembly failed to lead on energy affordability and greenhouse gas emission reduction, we’ve been here before. Between last year and this one, our tenacious movement overcame massive disinformation, lobbying, and campaign donations from the fossil fuel industry to pass the All-Electric Building Act and beat back an 11th hour attempt to weaken the state’s climate law, and we know we can do this again.

Our movement rose up across New York and did the hard work of winning over legislators one by one until we achieved passage of NY HEAT in the Senate and grew to 64 co-sponsors in the Assembly. More than 100 organizations submitted memos of support for the NY HEAT Act, and more than 70 municipal officials sent a letter last week urging Albany leadership not to go another year without passing it. Adding their support to the fight, the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus declared NY HEAT a priority for its Environmental Justice and Energy agenda.

 

With our movement only growing stronger, we will not stop until we build the clean, affordable, sustainable future that all New Yorkers deserve.

Of course, just because Albany headed home doesn't mean we're done.

So make sure to join us for our next Renewable Heat Now Power Hour on June 15th to recap what happened, and start preparing for what's next.

And that's not all! While session is over, the Assembly is holding on upcoming "special session" to vote on a selection of remaining bills. One of these is the Save the Hudson Bill, which will prevent Holtec from dumping radioactive wastewater into the Hudson. There's two easy ways you can help make sure the Assembly joins the State Senate in passing this and protecting our water:

  1. Sign the petition to the NY Assembly and Gov Hochul to make sure they know we're watching
  2. Join a phonebank Wednesday at 3 PM to pressure key Assemblymembers to support the bill

And finally: despite the latest weather crisis turning the skies orange, Con Ed still wants to raise rates to pay for the fracked gas that got us here. So if you're in New York City, join us, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, and a host of top climate advocates in Union Square starting at 5:30 today to let Con Ed and the Governor how we feel about it.