Mamdani Stays Mum on Albany Climate Fight

“I am someone who has long been supportive of all of the measures that we take to tackle the climate crisis,” Mamdani said. “I’m someone who supported the CLCPA and bringing it into existence.”

Hochul is pushing to delay a key deadline for New York to cut its emissions under the law and to change the way the state counts them, effectively allowing homes and businesses to keep burning gas for longer.

Mamdani was a vocal supporter of the climate law during his time in the Assembly; at a rally early in his mayoral campaign, he told the crowd, “The CLCPA is not a suggestion. It is a mandate.”

But Hochul is invoking Mamdani’s signature issue — affordability — in her push to roll back the law. If the state is forced to comply with a court order to meet the law’s requirements on time, she told attendees at a rally in Buffalo on Wednesday, “your already high utility bills will go one place, and that is higher.”

The climate fight is the latest example of Mamdani’s efforts to avoid antagonizing the governor. The mayor is lobbying Hochul to approve tax increases on wealthy people and corporations to close the city’s budget gap and help fund his agenda.

City Hall spokesperson Jeremy Edwards said only that the mayor is “laser-focused on addressing both the affordability and climate crises.” He added that the city wants to partner with the state on clean energy projects and programs that tackle energy insecurity.

A retreat from the state’s current climate goals could affect the city’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality, though it’s not clear to what extent. The city’s own flagship climate law, Local Law 97, requires big buildings to sharply cut their emissions by 2030.

“If the changes happen, we’ll be looking at the effects on 97,” said Laura Popa, an official at the city’s Department of Buildings, which is implementing the law. “We’ve projected out the emissions associated with electricity based on the state’s CLCPA goals,” she told the City Council on Tuesday. “But it’s too early to say.”

Many climate activists are pressing Mamdani to take a stronger stance in what has become a defining fight over New York’s climate agenda. “I’d love to see the mayor out there being really clear about what the repercussions for New York City’s efforts are if the state weakens its climate policy,” said Stephan Edel, executive director of NY Renews, the coalition that led the push for the CLCPA. “It is certainly not the stirring endorsement that we would hope for from a progressive champion.”

A separate budget proposal from Hochul, to renew and expand the J-51 tax break for building upgrades, could meanwhile give the city’s green buildings push a significant boost. (The Senate is broadly on board; the Assembly left the proposal out of its budget outline.)

Additional state climate funding — whether the one-time infusion lawmakers are seeking in this year’s budget or a revival of the cap and invest program Hochul shelved — could further speed things along.

Pushing back the state’s climate mandates, environmental justice advocates say, will prolong New Yorkers’ exposure to toxic air pollution. The city estimates that pollution from cars, trucks, buildings, and other sources contributes to some 2,000 premature deaths a year.

“This is not a numbers game or an accounting scheme,” said Eric Walker, a policy manager at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, at a rally for the climate law in the Capitol on Wednesday. “This is real life, real people’s livelihoods, and real people’s lives.”

More than 500 activists joined the rally, according to organizers, and at least two dozen state lawmakers. Among them: six of Mamdani’s former fellow socialists in state office, and his Assembly successor Diana Moreno.

“The climate crisis is here, the climate crisis is real, and we’re not going to go back,” Moreno told the crowd. “As an immigrant New Yorker, as a mother of a toddler who wants my son to inherit a livable future, I am holding the line.” (Some 20 activists and state comptroller candidate Raj Goyle were later arrested during a sit-in outside the governor’s office, which four of the socialist assemblymembers joined.)