The following statement is from Vanessa Fajans-Turner, Executive Director of Environmental Advocates NY
“In a year when federal attacks on environmental and public health protections are escalating, New York’s budget offers hope and hard truths. Lawmakers took important steps to invest in clean air, clean water, and healthier communities. Leaders invested an unprecedented $1 billion in climate solutions, which will be deployed in communities throughout the state to support everything from savings on energy bills to electrification efforts. But this progress is overshadowed by missed opportunities—especially the failure to advance the planned Clean Air Initiative, a cap-and-invest program which would have raised billions to accelerate the state’s climate transition.
The threats are growing. The need is urgent. And the true test of the ‘25-’26 enacted budget won’t be what’s written in these bills, but what the state does to honor them.”
