May 14, 2026 – This week, New York might do something no climate-leading state has done, even in the Trump era: weaken its landmark climate law. In 2019, New York adopted among the country’s most ambitious targets: greenhouse gas regulations by 2024, a 40% emissions cut by 2030, and an 85% cut by 2050. The state has already missed its 2024 goal, and announced it will also miss its goal in 2030. Now, as a Democratic governor and a Democratic supermajority finalize a state budget in Albany, the reported deal would dramatically roll this law back.
The coalition pushing back in Albany this week—labor, environmental justice, climate, faith, public-health, and ratepayer advocates—is not going home when the budget prints. It is the same coalition that will define the 2026 elections, the 2027 session, and the politics of the next governor’s race…And they will remember who delivered and who failed them. New York wrote this climate policy playbook. And New York can still get it right.
-EANY’s Vanessa Fajans Turner and Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
