New York is violating its climate law — and doesn’t get a pass because implementing the law is “complicated,” a judge found Friday.

The 2019 law, which remains one of the most ambitious in the country, gave the state Department of Environmental Conservation until the start of 2024 to issue regulations that would “ensure” New York meet its binding greenhouse gas emissions targets. More than a year and half later, it has not — a fact that Ulster County Supreme Court Judge Julian Schreibman said was “undisputed” in the case.

Climate advocates and home energy contractors rallied outside the Albany offices of the state energy authority NYSERDA on Wednesday, pressing Governor Kathy Hochul’s administration to shore up funding for a key energy affordability program.

The Empower+ program, which helps low- and moderate-income households pay for energy efficiency upgrades they otherwise could not afford, is set to lose more than half its funding by 2027, as first reported by New York Focus in July. The program has already begun scaling back, after supporting more than 40,000 home upgrades over the last couple of years.

A longtime state ethics commissioner is planning to sue New York’s ethics commission after his nomination to join a new iteration of the body was rejected.

Syracuse lawyer Gary Lavine served as a commissioner on the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) for a decade, where he ruffled feathers as he pushed for the commission to become more transparent and criticized then-Governor Andrew Cuomo’s influence over the body.