"She'll be Dead in 2050" - NY Governor Delays Climate Goals Under the Guise of "Affordability."

Climate Defiance and Extinction Rebellion activists gathered in the “War Room” outside of Governor Kathy Hochul’s offices in the New York State Capitol Building on Tuesday. Their goal was to push back against the Democrat’s attempts at delaying the landmark 2019 Climate legislation signed by Governor Cuomo.

The Climate Act required the state to issue regulations to cut emissions by 2024. The state is already late in doing that and now Governor Hochul, in the middle of the budget process is proposing delaying it more. One of the laws mandates call for a 85% reduction in 1990 level greenhouse gas emissions by the far off date of 2050.

In an editorial published last month at The Empire Report she blamed everything from COVID-19 to Trump tariffs for the delay, saying:

Post-COVID inflation and supply chain disruptions have created a far more challenging economic landscape. That has been compounded by federally imposed illegal tariffs that have driven up project costs, and a dramatic shift in Washington.

The 67 year old Governor is like many Democrats who are more concerned with short term “affordability” issues than long term being able to survive on the planet issues. Climate goals seems to be one of the easy things to back track on as they were never actually something they believed in to begin with.

There are Democrats that aren’t bowing to the current buzz word of centrist Dems, “affordability” and are looking bigger issues. NY State Senator Kristen Gonzalez told the assembled protesters that “Any rollbacks to this law is a direct threat to everyday people.” She cited the region that she represented in the NYC area that saw the largest underground oil spill in US history and the power plants that pollute the air that her constituents breathe.

Just this week Senator Sheldon Whitehouse told The Guardian that, “Democrats will continue to lose the righteous and winnable fight over the future of clean energy if we cede the battlefield to fossil fuel liars and our own party’s misguided climate-hushers.”

Climate Defiance, a non-violent direct action organization founded by Michael Greenberg brought dozens of people from around the state to not just rally outside of offices but to sit-in until being arrested. Greenberg expressed his frustration of having to take this action to protest at a supposed pro-climate Governor’s office.

“The difference could be life or death. I mean, climate change isn’t the type of issue where if you do it now, great. And if you do it later, it’s almost as good. You know, there are tipping points. There are points of no return. We need to act now before it’s too late. And we literally don’t have time to kick the can down the road. She’ll be dead by 2050. It’s a joke that she sees fit to push the goals back to. Then we need. We need bold changes now. 2050 doesn’t work.”

After brief speeches in the “War Room” or reception area in front of the Governors offices, activists held their sit-in. The warnings came quickly, five minutes later State Troopers and Capitol police offices pushed the press out of the way arresting in total 18.