In 2017, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reached a deal to shut down the Indian Point nuclear power plant north of New York City. The plant had supplied electricity to the metropolitan area for more than 50 years.

The former governor spent years trying to close the plant, calling it “a ticking time bomb."

Gov. Kathy Hochul is feeling the heat from environmentalists angry at what they claim is her decision to delay a “Cap-and-Invest” program.

At the same time, the interim head of the Department of Environmental Conservation denied that there was any delay. But changes to the program outlined in the governor’s executive budget prompted three environmental justice advocates to resign from the state’s Climate Justice Working Group, saying in a letter that they believe the governor is backpedaling on her climate commitment.

Sean Mahar, interim commissioner of the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation, was adamant Tuesday that Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to not include a full rollout of the state’s Cap and Invest program in her executive budget as was expected is not a delay. The comments came following a joint budget hearing on environmental conservation and energy.

“Cap and Invest is continuing to move. We’re prioritizing moving the reporting rules first at the governor’s direction and that’s showing you that Cap and Invest is still an active initiative in the state that we need to get right,” he said.

State funding totaling $100 million is now available for transit providers to expand their use of zero-emission vehicles, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday.

The money comes from the state’s Zero-Emission Transit Transition Program (ZETT), part of the effort to achieve the goals of New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019, which requires New York to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050 from 1990 levels.

Federal funds totaling $15 million will go to installing 350 electric vehicle charging stations at State University of New York campuses, U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced Tuesday.

The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant Program, which is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act, which Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021.

Large fossil fuel companies would have to pay fees to help New York fight the effects of climate change under a bill signed Thursday by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The new law requires companies responsible for substantial greenhouse gas emissions to pay into a state fund for infrastructure projects meant to repair or avoid future damage from climate change.

Rallies took place around New York state Thursday demanding lawmakers pass a couple of bills known by advocates as the Renewable Heat Now package.

The package includes a pair of bills: one requires state buildings to transition to renewable energy within three years; the other bill curbs the expansion of gas infrastructure throughout the state.

Time is running out for Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign the Climate Change Superfund Act, but she is currently in talks with lawmakers negotiating potential chapter amendments to the bill as Dec. 31 looms.

A spokesperson for state Sen. Liz Krueger, who sponsors the bill, told Spectrum News 1 she is “optimistic.”

The number of clean energy jobs in New York state has reached a record high with 178,000 employees in the industry at the end of 2023, according to findings from the 2024 New York Clean Energy Industry Report.

That’s an increase of 7,700 from the year prior.

The New York Power Authority is seeking public comment on a draft plan of their role in expanding the state’s renewable energy portfolio. It is part of the state’s work to meet ambitious climate goals and the expansion of NYPA’s authority was approved in last year’s state budget. The expansion gives NYPA, the largest state public power organization in the nation, the authority to plan and execute renewable projects.

Vennela Yadhati, vice president of renewable project development at NYPA, told Spectrum News 1 the draft plan identifies 40 projects that seek to move the needle.

Former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin’s nomination by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Environmental Protection Agency has fueled an already intense debate over how Trump’s second term will impact climate policy both at the state and federal level.

Environmental advocates like Judith Enck, former Region 2 EPA regional aministrator under President Barack Obama, are already concerned at the prospect of a Trump presidency and have expressed further concern with Zeldin’s nomination.

New York is one year ahead of schedule for hitting some of its clean energy goals outlined in the 2019 state climate law, the state announced Thursday.

So far, 6 gigawatts of solar have been installed statewide.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s performance on handling the state's climate crisis did not receive good marks from one climate action group.

Climate Can’t Wait, a collaborative of several climate groups, released a "report card” on the governor's progress Tuesday. They gave Hochul a "D-minus" for her performance so far.

More than $33 million has been allocated to help farmers address the impacts of climate change as part of New York’s Climate Resilient Farming grant program, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday.

“This program gives farmers the resources they need to mitigate their impact on the environment, prepare for and respond to whatever weather events the future holds and continue their critical work contributing to our local economies,” Hochul said in a statement.

The New York state Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission has issued two siting permits for two major renewable energy projects in upstate New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday.

The sites are the Rich Road Solar Energy Center, in the town of Canton, in St. Lawrence County, and Prattsburgh Wind LLC, in Steuben County.

As climate week convenes in New York City, Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering a bill to reconvene the state’s sea level rise task force. The task force would be in charge of updating data and making recommendations for how to best address the issue.

The task force was last convened back in 2007 and presented its report in 2010. Those pushing the bill stress that our understanding of climate change and the data available have changed drastically since, and so should the state's strategy.

In the five years since the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) was signed, the state’s energy picture has dimmed in multiple ways: The closure of Indian Point has led to more CO2 emissions. There is a greater reliance on fossil fuels downstate. The price for electricity has increased.

But with electricity needs increasing with the pending arrival of Micron, one trade union president is urging the state to build more capacity by broadening its definition of acceptable energy sources.

OSTEEN, Fla. — Like many Central Florida counties, Volusia County is seeing exponential growth. With that growth comes increased development and the risk of losing green spaces that many Floridians considered sacred.

However, the environmental group Conservation Florida is bridging that gap by opening up the 476-acre D Ranch Preserve to the public in the spring of 2025.

Nuclear energy is unique in a lot of ways. While it doesn’t emit greenhouse gasses, it is extractive since it relies on uranium mining. While nuclear waste is radioactive and must be carefully transported and stored, nuclear power is efficient and a greenhouse gas emissions-free alternative to oil and gas.

The state currently has three aging nuclear plants in Central New York, but they continue to produce 20% of New York’s energy.

Economists with the state's nonpartisan fiscal watchdog continue to research legislation that would create a $75 billion fund to pay for climate change initiatives and related projects, and have questions about the impact on consumers and ethics of the bill.

Gov. Kathy Hochul will make a decision to sign or veto a proposal later this fall to require large fossil fuel companies to pay the state $3 billion a year for 25 years to fund the costs of climate change based on their share of emissions. Supporters of the legislation, called the Climate Change Superfund Act, say the fund would shift the cost of clean energy projects off taxpayers.

The state’s energy summit will continue on Thursday in Syracuse with panel discussions on next generation technologies and nuclear power, among other issues.

Protests are planned around the event by those groups who were not invited to participate: communities on the front lines of the climate crisis, including environmental justice organizations.

Gavin Donohue, president and CEO of the Independent Power Producers of New York (IPPNY), is hoping to hear that the Hochul administration will be investing more in workforce development to ensure that New York can quickly bring online any new energy technologies.

He spoke with Capital Tonight’s Susan Arbetter about the issue from the governor’s energy summit in Syracuse.

Next week in Syracuse, Gov. Kathy Hochul will convene an energy summit to discuss the role of clean energy and discuss accelerating renewables, while also supporting economic development in New York.

As Capital Tonight has reported, the state is already three years behind its own timetable to meet the goals of its climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Over the course of the 32 meetings from early 2020 to late 2022, New York's Climate Action Council developed a scoping plan to meet the state's energy and emission reduction goals.

Phillips Lytle head of energy and sustainability Dennis Elsenbeck was one of only three members to vote against the final plan.

It’s been five years since New York’s landmark climate bill was passed by the New York state Legislature and signed into law by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, or CLCPA, mandates that 70% of the state’s electricity be generated by renewables by 2030, which is less than six years away.

As preparations become finalized for New York's energy summit in Syracuse next week, Republican lawmakers are urging the state leaders and global experts who will participate to make a cost analysis of New York's clean energy goals and reliability of the electric grid part of the conversation.

Environmental experts, state agencies, power producers, labor groups and others will be part of the two-day Future Energy Economy Summit at the Syracuse Marriott Downtown hotel.

States with orphaned oil and gas wells will receive $775 million to clean them up, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced Wednesday. Funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the department will give 21 states grants to help reduce methane leaks and risks to groundwater.

“These investments are good for our climate, for the health of our communities and for American workers,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.

A bill passed late in the New York legislative session aims to create a state sustainability officer.

The role would be tied to the wide range of efforts underway to meet New York's ambitious climate goals, which state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said Wednesday needs improved planning, monitoring and assessment.

New York’s climate law requires that the Public Service Commission (PSC) issue a progress report on how the state’s doing in its move toward clean energy.

By law, the state is supposed to meet a target of 70% renewables by 2030. While the report indicates that New York will not meet that goal, and the Hochul administration is considering moving the deadline to 2033, there is some optimism in New York.

In politics, a last-minute bombshell that drops before a November election is known as an "October surprise."

Here in Albany, just days before the end of the legislative session, Gov. Kathy Hochul dropped what one could call a June surprise as she announced an “indefinite pause” of the congestion pricing policy which was set to go into effect at the end of June in New York City.

New York is working to meet ambitious goals when it comes to reducing emissions — those goals being set forth in New York’s 2019 Climate Act. Meeting them requires continuous progress that climate activists say is not moving fast enough.

Those activists say they were disappointed right out of the gate when they heard Gov. Kathy Hochul's State of The State address in January, and while there were some wins, they remained disappointed as the halls of the state Capitol emptied at the end of session two weeks ago.

Environmental advocacy groups like We Act 4 Change are making passage of the NY HEAT Act their top priority as legislative session nears its close.

Climate Justice Campaign Manager Annie Carforo said the legislation aims to align state policy with climate goals already on the books.

Microplastics have now been found just about everywhere: every single human organ, in breast milk, in newborn babies, in clouds. According to the Guardian, microplastics have been found from deep in the Mariana Trench to the tip of Mount Everest.

It’s also suspected that they are causing problems with male fertility.

The United States has exceeded 5 million solar installations, with more than half of all installations taking place since 2020.

The Solar Energy Industries Association announced Thursday that the milestone was achieved with installations on businesses, homes and large, ground-mounted arrays throughout the country.

The New York state Public Service Commission has adopted a Statewide Solar for All program that aims to spur development of solar and retail energy storage projects, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office announced Thursday.

Statewide Solar for All will combine the utility-managed Energy Affordability Program (EAP) and market-based community solar with the goal to deliver clean energy savings to low-income households.

New York state Assemblymember Anna Kelles has introduced legislation that serves as an alternative to the state’s emerging cap and trade system.

Cap and trade is a program used to help meet climate goals by capping pollution and then authorizing tradable allowances between companies, creating a new market.

Once again, the NY HEAT Act did not make the state budget. The bill is at the very top of environmentalists’ priorities.

The NY HEAT Act would align utility regulations with the state’s emissions reduction targets and remove a residential customer’s legal entitlement to utility gas services, but maintain the entitlement for electric service.

Renewable energy projects in New York have been taking more than three years to receive siting permits due to application delays, according to an audit released Thursday by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's office.

The audit of the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES), which was created in 2020, found permit applications were often delayed due to missing or insufficient documentation.

Climate activists view the New York state budget as the best chance for passage of the Climate Change Superfund Act.

The bill (S.2129A Krueger/A.3351A Dinowitz) would force oil companies to help pay for damages caused by the climate crisis — damages that environmental justice communities have been dealing with for decades, in some cases.

New York state lawmakers have introduced a bill that would exempt the burning of wood, used for cooking or heating buildings, from restrictions under the state’s 2019 climate law.

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) mandates the state lower greenhouse gas emissions to 40% of 1990 levels by 2030, and by 85% by 2050.

Members of the New York state Assembly on Tuesday urged the chamber’s speaker, Carl Heastie, and Gov. Kathy Hochul to include the NY HEAT Act, which aligns utility regulation with state climate justice and emission reduction targets, in the state budget.

Proponents of the measure say it is intended to limit costs to customers as New York state transitions away from natural gas while protecting them from predatory practices by capping utility costs at 6% of income for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers to prevent utility companies from hiking rates.

New York state Sen. Pete Harckham, the chairman of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, has proposed legislation that would create a new limit of tax credits for New Yorkers to go solar.

The proposal, which is currently in committee, would give New Yorkers who transition their residence to rooftop solar a maximum per-household tax credit of $10,000. Harckham joined Capital Tonight to discuss how the proposal would work.

Food prices and overall inflation will rise as temperatures climb with climate change, a new study by an environmental scientist and the European Central Bank found.

Looking at monthly price tags of food and other goods, temperatures and other climate factors in 121 nations since 1996, researchers calculate that “weather and climate shocks” will cause the cost of food to rise 1.5 to 1.8 percentage points annually within a decade or so, even higher in already hot places like the Middle East, according to a study in Thursday’s journal Communications, Earth and the Environment.

The New York state Senate on Tuesday passed legislation aimed to make utility bills easier to pay for ratepayers, including the NY Heat Act, which aligns utility regulation with state climate justice and emission reduction targets.

The NY HEAT Act, which passed 40-22, had been approved by the state Senate last year but the Assembly and Gov. Kathy Hochul have yet to find agreement on all variables of the legislation. Hochul included key provisions in her 2025 state budget, but not the entire piece of legislation.

Another report has found 2023 was the hottest year on record.

The newest World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Global Climate assessment, released Tuesday, showed that records were broken for greenhouse gas emissions, surface temperatures, sea level rise, Antarctic sea ice cover, glacier retreat and ocean heat and acidification.

There are several proposals on environmental wish lists this legislative session, including the NY HEAT Act, which advocates say will save New Yorkers money and move them off fossil fuels, as well as the Climate Change Superfund Act, which would make polluters pay for the cost of the climate transition.

“This is a very important budget for lawmakers and the governor to get right when it comes to environmental protections and addressing climate change,” Liz Moran, a policy advocate for Earthjustice, told Capital Tonight.

A collaboration of unions, climate advocates, building industry representatives and environmental groups is calling for New York to decarbonize state-owned college campuses as part of the state budget.

Known as UpgradeNY, the group wants union-led funding to build thermal energy networks at the State University of New York at Buffalo and Purchase to decarbonize heating and cooling on their campuses, the group said Thursday morning.

The State University of New York system will phase out the use of single-use plastics like bags, beverage bottles, food service products, utensils, plastic wrap and packaging films, SUNY Chancellor John King announced Tuesday.

The higher education system will work with the SustainChain public service platform to create a plastics-free solutions hub with access to resources on how to achieve the new requirement.

The cost of the doing nothing on climate will far outweigh the cost of a climate transition for New York, according to state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos, who addressed concerns on Capital Tonight.

“I just want to make sure viewers are clear. People are already paying for the impacts of climate change. That is a certainty. We spent $36 billion to recover from Superstorm Sandy,” Seggos said. “We see a $55 billion bill, potentially, if we don’t do the right things in New York, just on adaptation over the next 10 years.”

About 20% of the world’s migrating animals could be extinct because of human activities and climate change, according to a first-ever report on migratory species the United Nation’s Environment Programme released Monday.

Already 44% of the migrating animals on the group’s conservation list are declining in population because of agriculture, over fishing, pollution, land development and other manmade issues.

New York lawmakers met yet again within the marble walls of Albany's Legislative Office Building Wednesday to hear testimony on the state’s environmental conservation budget, with topics ranging from assistance for farmers to New York’s State Park system.

Some of the more heated exchanges we’ve seen at these hearings so far this session, however, were directed at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation. They're largely concerned with the attainability of New York’s climate goals.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized a new air quality standard on Wednesday that tightens the allowable amount of fine particulate matter.

The fine, inhalable particles known as PM 2.5 are generated from a variety of sources, including the burning of fossil fuels and cigarette smoke, leading to premature death, asthma attacks and lost workdays.

After two years of increases, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fell in 2023, according to new estimates from the Rhodium Group. The nonpartisan research provider said the 1.9% decline took place even as the economy grew 2.4% over the same time frame.

Rhodium attributed the fall in emissions to a mild winter and less coal being used to generate electricity. Emissions from power generation fell 8% and 4% for residential and commercial buildings, though transportation emissions increased 1.6%. The increase in transportation emissions was led by a rebound in air travel and increases in driving. Jet fuel consumption increased 5% in 2023 compared with a year earlier, and gasoline consumption rose 1%.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed several notable bills late in the year, including the Grieving Families Act.

But one vetoed bill that hasn’t received much attention is the Tropical Deforestation-Free Procurement Act, sponsored by state Sen. Liz Krueger and Assemblymember Pat Fahy.

With hydrogen poised to become a major energy source in the Biden administration’s efforts to phase out fossil fuels, the U.S. Treasury Department on Friday proposed rules for billions of dollars in tax credits to aid the transition.

Designed to increase domestic renewable energy production, the tax credits are intended to spur more sustainably produced hydrogen for use in manufacturing, transportation and electricity generation.

One of the ways New York state will be able to help pay for the climate transition is via a cap and invest program.

On Wednesday, the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the New York state Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) released what they're calling a cap and invest “pre-proposal” for stakeholders.

A handful of international dairy conglomerates agreed to disclose their methane emissions as part of a new alliance launched Tuesday during the COP28 climate conference in Dubai.

The newly formed Dairy Methane Action Alliance is a coalition of French, Swiss and U.S. companies that includes Bel Group, Danone, General Mills, Kraft Heinz, Lactalis and Nestle as its founding members.

A California initiative to cut global methane emissions has gained new partners. Areas of Brazil, Canada, South Korea, Bolivia, Germany and the United States signed on to the recently formed Subnational Methane Action Coalition during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai over the weekend.

The group of subnational governments seeks to reduce methane emissions from agriculture, energy and landfills. Eighty times more potent than carbon dioxide, methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that accounts for nearly 30% of global warming. Lowering methane emissions holds the potential to prevent 0.3 degrees Celsius of global warming by 2050, according to the California Air Resources Board.

The U.N. weather agency said Thursday that 2023 is all but certain to be the hottest year on record, and warning of worrying trends that suggest increasing floods, wildfires, glacier melt, and heat waves in the future.

The World Meteorological Organization also warned that the average temperature for the year is up some 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit from pre-industrial times – a mere one-tenth of a degree under a target limit for the end of the century as laid out by the Paris climate accord in 2015.

Hours after the release of a far-reaching government report on the impacts of climate change, President Joe Biden on Tuesday sought to paint a picture of the widespread and costly effects of extreme weather.

At the same time, the president made an appeal to the public: there is still time to act, and his administration is doing just that.

New York this week announced plans for development of 6.4 new gigawatts of renewable energy – something Gov. Kathy Hochul has called “the largest ever renewable energy investment by a state.”

Both on and offshore projects, including three new offshore wind farms, have been offered conditional contracts, which means they will enter the negotiation phase.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced what she called the largest state investment in renewable energy in United States history, conducting of three offshore wind projects and 22 land-based projects, her office said Tuesday.

The state will commit $300 million and attract an additional $668 million in private funding.

Business groups from around New York state want to bring what they describe as a more “thoughtful and practical” approach to the climate transition, so they’re supporting several statewide information campaigns designed to educate the public.

According to Paul Zuber, the Business Council of New York State’s executive vice president, the campaign is supported by a diverse coalition of groups, including local chambers of commerce and transportation organizations.

New York has $165 million in funding available to support environmental upgrades to various transportation systems, Gov. Kathy Hochul's office announced Friday.

The funding can be used for projects that create new and enhance existing bicycle and pedestrian facilities, improve access to public transportation, create safe routes to schools, convert abandoned railway corridors to pedestrian trails and help reduce congestion and greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.

New York will make $100 million available for zero-emission public school buses as fleets transition to zero-emission vehicles, as required by the state's 2019 Climate Act, Gov. Kathy Hochul's office announced Thursday.

This is the first round of funding available for these buses under the $4.2 billion Environmental Bond Act that New York voters approved in 2022. There is a total of $500 million of Environmental Bond Act money available.

This week, business groups around the state are gearing up for a campaign that highlights the unintended costs of the state’s new climate law.

In response, New York Department of Environmental Commissioner Basil Seggos told Capital Tonight that the costs of inaction are much higher.

When world leaders warn the earth is about to become uninhabitable because of climate change, as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this week, it can be easy for some people to give up hope.

Bill Gates is not one of those people.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation aimed to make it easier to access geothermal heating and cooling systems in order to help reach the goals of the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, her office announced Thursday.

The legislation hopes to reduce costs for the installation of geothermal wells, helping New York meet the state’s building decarbonization requirements. It changes how certain wells drilled deeper than 500 feet below the Earth’s surface are regulated. Currently, they are regulated under the same provisions that cover oil and gas mines and drilling. This legislation will create new provisions, streamlining regulation of geothermal boreholes while ensuring that all deep well locations throughout the state are adequately reviewed and that potential impacts from the drilling process are mitigated.

NEW YORK (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday that he plans to sign into law a pair of climate-focused bills intended to force major corporations to be more transparent about greenhouse gas emissions and the financial risks stemming from global warming.

Newsom's announcement came during an out-of-state trip to New York’s Climate Week, where world leaders in business, politics and the arts are gathered to seek solutions for climate change.

We are seeing some early ballpark figures for New York state’s transition to clean energy: The bill appears to be around $44 billion.

It’s an estimate found in the New York state Department of Public Service’s “First Annual Informational Report on Overall Implementation of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.”

Flooding in Vermont, extreme heat in Arizona and the devastating wildfire in Hawaii are all evidence of a warming planet, scientists say. Last month was not only the hottest July dating back to at least 1880, it shattered the previous 2019 record by two-tenths of a degree Celsius, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Assn. said Monday.

“That might not sound like a lot, but the margin for most global records is on the order of a hundredth of a degree or two,” said NOAA Chief Scientist Sara Kapnick. “Last month was way, way warmer than anything we’ve ever seen.”

A chilling new study published in the journal, Nature Communications, finds that the planet may be closer to the climate “tipping point” than scientists had believed.

That means we may be getting to the point where some climate changes are irreversible if we don’t take action very soon.

Electric vehicle charging infrastructure, as well as consumer rebates, are receiving a $29 million boost, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced.

New York is trying to reach the target of significantly curtailing carbon emissions in the coming years. One of the key challenges is expanding the use of electric vehicles, where demand is in part dictated by the cost as well as concerns over where to find a charger.

New York's top utility regulator Rory Christian acknowledges the transition to cleaner and renewable forms of energy in the coming decades and how that will affect ratepayers in New York will present complications.

"I think that might be one of many challenges we have to face and we're going to need to look at this from a variety of different perspectives," he said. "It's going to require an all-of-government solution."

On Thursday, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland traveled to New York’s Capital Region to highlight the progress made on offshore wind projects.

Anne Reynolds, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy NY, joined Capital Tonight to discuss the “growing pains” and reasons for optimism in the renewable energy field.

Extreme heat continues across the American south this week while Canada experiences its worst wildfire season on record, also driven by extreme heat.

According to Reuters, the searing heat is part of a global pattern of rising temperatures, attributed by scientists to human activity.

New York's shorelines, susceptible to the impact of climate change through flash flooding and erosion, could soon have a new way of being protected.

State lawmakers gave final approval this month to a measure that is meant to encourage the Department of Environmental Conservation to use "nature-based solutions" to stabilize tidal shorelines.

Liz Moran, policy advocate at Earthjustice, joined Capital Tonight to discuss the NY HEAT Act, which failed to get passed by the end of the scheduled legislative session. It would change state law to stop utility companies from building new natural gas hookups used to generate electricity. It would also cap utility bills at 6% of their income for low-and moderate-income households, which advocates say could save affected families up to $75 per month.

State business leaders have met last-minute changes made to a bill to limit plastic pollution and increase recycling statewide with fierce pushback in efforts to prevent the measure's passage in the last few days of session.

The legislation, nicknamed the Packaging and Recycling Infrastructure Act, would establish an Extended Producer Responsibility system in New York and make producers of packaging responsible for the costs of consumer waste and reduce used toxins. It would limit single-use plastic products for companies that sell packaged goods and charge them a fee to go into a fund to improve recycling infrastructure, increase the amount of waste that's recycled and support other local recyling programs.

Last month, state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul could not reach an agreement in the $229 billion budget to align utility regulations with the sweeping goals of a climate change provision to reduce carbon emissions in the coming decades.

Now, as state lawmakers wrap up the legislative session this week, a final push is being made to pass the bill, known as the NY Heat Act, among its supporters.

New York's move toward electrification is a massive undertaking, and the timeline to implement it is aggressive. Under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), the state must reduce emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. That’s in less than seven years.

“It’s a crunch; it’s 78 months ‘till 2030,” said Bart Franey, the vice president of Clean Energy Development at National Grid. “That’s like tomorrow for us.”

Back in 1967 when the film “The Graduate” came out, “plastics” may have seemed like the future.

Not today.

The recently passed New York state budget ushered in a new era of electrification: It mandates that new construction in the state is powered by electricity starting in 2026. It also authorizes the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to build renewable energy projects and ensures that the state’s largest buildings and campuses are powered by renewables.

Several of the just-passed proposals were part of the Climate Action Council’s scoping plan, created to ensure that New York meets its goal of reducing carbon emissions 85% by 2050.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- New York state estimates already this year taxpayers are spending more than $800 million for projects related to climate change-caused damages and resiliency projects.

State Sen. Liz Krueger, a Democrat from Manhattan, sponsors legislation that would hold the world's biggest oil and gas companies responsible for at least some of those costs moving forward.

Four companies New York's pension fund has invested in have agreed to analyze and target a reduction in their greenhouse gas emissions, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli on Tuesday said.

The companies included Carrier Global Corp, Papa John's International Inc., Century Aluminum Co. and Spirit Reality. Kraft Heinz, meanwhile, will create a deforestration-free policy of sourcing.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday shrugged off the potential of New York's plan to end natural gas hookups in newly constructed buildings and homes by 2027 being impacted by a legal challenge to a similar provision in Berkeley, California while also pointing to the rebates for consumers to help make the transition.

"There are court cases happening all over the country, whether they have an effect here is another question," Hochul said on Monday in Buffalo.

New York state is making available $2.1 million in competitive grant money to aid local air quality improvement projects, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday announced.

Community-based non-profit organizations will qualify for the money to aid disadvantaged communities in New York that have struggled with air pollution.

It was a good New York budget for environmental advocates.

According to Liz Moran, New York public advocate at Earthjustice, the spending plan “exceeded expectations” by attacking greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from buildings.

Officials are expected to put the finishing touches on the 2023-24 state budget this weekend, including finalizing programs to protect the environment and satisfy the state's strict benchmarks to fight climate change.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a tentative budget framework in the Capitol on Thursday night with few details.

State lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul have reached a tentative deal to end gas hookups in new construction in the coming years as part of a broader effort to shift the state away from fossil fuels and to more renewable forms of energy.

The agreement is meant to cushion the effect the measure will have on consumers, with pre-existing gas stoves unaffected. But at the same time, it's a tangible push toward making a transition to cleaner forms of energy, a change that will have a wide-ranging effect on energy policy in New York.

A listening tour is being launched by Gov. Kathy Hochul's administration for the public to provide input on how to spend $4.2 billion on environmental infrastructure upgrades around New York.

Hochul's office on Monday also announced $425 million in a new round of water infrastructure improvement projects.

In an attempt to further spur clean technologies in New York amid a push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury, state officials on Friday announced a multimillion-dollar program to support new insurance policies and products.

Gov. Kathy Hochul's office announced a $6.5 million plan under the Insurance Innovation for Climate-Technology Solutions program as part of an effort to release grants for risk management and insurance market expansion for businesses that are transitioning to climiate-friendly products.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday touted the millions of dollars being sent to states like New York – including $21 million to make improvements to a bridge just south of Albany. And more cash for New York communities may be on the way.

Money is flowing into New York to improve its infrastructure. And Buttigieg says much of that cash is coming with an eye toward the future.

Lawmakers leading the climate fight are turning up the heat about which climate protection measures should be in the final state budget and which are a priority for the remainder of the legislative session as Democrats start to fracture over how to pay to successfully meet New York's emission reduction goals outlined in state law.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has made it clear her administration won't include a provision in the next budget to alter the Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act, or Climate Act, and the timeline used to calculate greenhouse gas emissions. But it doesn't mean it won't be a possibility later this session, or that the other more robust measures climate advocates are pushing for won't advance outside the budget, either.

New York was slow to adopt renewable energy under the administration of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

According to Inside Climate News, New York is number 24 out of 50 states when it comes to generating gigawatts of power, having created just 6,895 gigawatt hours of wind and solar in 2022 compared to Texas’ 136,000 gigawatt hours.