Green Party Slams Hochul for Misleading Cost Figures on Climate Action

The Green Party of New York harshly criticized the Hochul administration for its ongoing efforts to join the Trump administration in gutting efforts to avoid climate collapse.

The Party said that NYSERDA's (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) recent 3-page memo citing costs related to climate action was insultingly poorly written and misleading in that it appears to exclusively focus on the Governor's cap-and-trade proposal, rather than providing a comprehensive fiscal assessment of the actions needed for the state to comply with the goals under the state's climate law (CLCPA- Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act).

Green Party of New York
www.gpny.org

For Immediate Release
March 1, 2026

For more information:
Gloria Mattera, [email protected] , 917-886-4538
Peter LaVenia, [email protected] , 518 495-8001
Mark Dunlea, [email protected] , 518 860-3725

"New York is not on track to meet the rather tepid climate goals due to the lack of leadership by the Hochul administration. Climate change and extreme weather are accelerating, and the world has already largely blown past the 1.5 degrees C target to cap global warming. A state Supreme Court judge recently found that the administration was out of compliance with the CLCPA, starting with its refusal to propose regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It has refused to raise and invest the $10 billion in annual funds that the administration has said is needed to implement the law," stated Gloria Mattera, Co-chair of the Green Party.

"Hochul has been running away from her cap-and-invest measure ever since she read about the $48 a ton carbon price for the first auction under the State of Washington's similar program. She apparently was shocked to realize that putting a price on carbon emissions meant putting a price on such emissions and related products. Economists, however, have long agreed that a carbon tax is the most cost-effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And she largely ignores that a key way to offset the impact of such price increases is to rebate most if not all of the revenues back to consumers," stated Mark Dunlea, co-chair of the EcoAction Committee of the Green Party of the US.

The Hochul administration did conduct a more rigorous - though still deficient - cost analysis of the CLCPA as appendix G of its Scoping Document . The state concluded that: "the benefits of avoiding economic impacts of damages caused by climate change and the improvements in public health total $400 - 415 billion." The Green Party noted that this 30-year analysis was an underestimation, as just the annual increased health care costs from air pollution is $50 billion. (While the scoping document was legally required to be incorporated into the recent update to the state energy plan, the Hochul administration decided to largely ignore it.)

A decade ago, the Green Party helped draft a state carbon tax bill that would provide a 60% rebate to low-and-moderate income New Yorkers, resulting in a net income to them.

Another way for the state to offset any costs related to climate action would be a far more robust Climate Superfund Act, which is set to raise only $3 billion a year for 25 years from the largest greenhouse gas polluters. The sponsors of the bill estimate that the state will need at least $500 billion to pay for climate adaptation costs, meaning that the Superfund program is only raising 15% of the costs.

"We need a Governor who is willing to fight to make energy affordable for average New Yorkers, not do the bidding of the fossil fuel, nuclear, and high-tech industries and their campaign contributions. This means making polluters pay. It means instead of wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on nuclear and fossil fuel infrastructure, the state should lower electricity costs by investing in cheaper renewables, conservation, and energy storage," added Green Party co-chair Peter LaVenia.

Bob Howarth , a member of the state's Climate Action Council, in slamming NYSERDA's slanted memo, pointed out that the decision to allow the export of natural gas has driven up domestic prices, leading to hikes in utility costs since gas is the largest single source of electricity in NY.

The Green Party is also highly critical of Hochul's decision to provide an additional $33 billion in subsidies to 4 old upstate nuclear reactors and to build 5 new nuclear reactors at a cost of as much as $180 billion, which will force massive hikes in utility bills. Such expenditures diverts resources from cheaper renewable energy. The Green Party supports having NYPA build at least 20 GW of publicly owned renewables to drive down costs.