Statement on New York State Legislative Budget
Albany, N.Y. – The New York League of Conservation Voters issued the following statement in response to the State Senate and State Assembly releasing their respective one-house budgets:
Julie Tighe, President of the New York League of Conservation Voters, said, “The State Senate’s one-house budget demonstrates a commitment to New York State taking the lead on climate action, protecting the environment, and public health. We are extremely excited to see so many significant commitments within the Senate’s budget, but there is still a tremendous amount of work to do to meet the targets in the CLCPA. As we work to hit clean energy goals and slash fossil fuel use, we also applaud the Senate’s inclusion of a clean fuel standard for transportation, the electrification of new buildings, significant steps to reduce waste, and resiliency measures to protect wetlands. Action of this magnitude requires major investments to back it up: by proposing to increase the bond act to $6 billion, this will put impactful funding in place. That includes $1 billion for electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, with funding for transit buses and support for electrifying all school buses by 2035. We thank Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Senator Kaminsky, and their colleagues for their leadership and investing in a green future.
We also applaud the State Assembly for funding additional climate action in their proposal to increase the bond act to $5 billion, and a commitment to electrify all school buses by 2035 in their one-house budget. There is still a tremendous amount of work to do to meet the targets in the CLCPA. That requires action – to drastically and quickly cut the use of fossil fuels – and we need to pursue every avenue that makes an impact. We thank Speaker Heastie and Assemblymember Englebright for their leadership and urge them to include dedicated funding for electric vehicles, including school buses, a clean fuel standard for transportation, the electrification of new buildings, wetlands protection, and extended producer responsibility legislation in the final adopted State budget.
###