The EPA is supposed to be our nation’s environmental watchdog, and their most fundamental responsibility is to ensure that Americans have clean air and clean water. No one wants to go back to the days of smog-filled skies and contaminated water. Yet this administration is seeking to roll back decades of bipartisan environmental protections that ensure those most basic rights, while at the same time gutting their own agency. And while the Trump administration wants to pretend that climate change doesn’t exist, New York knows better, which is why we successfully phased out coal years ago and are now among the states moving off of fossil fuels – and the economic roller coaster that comes it – and toward clean American energy, growing our economy in the process.
More than 12 years after Superstorm Sandy – and in the wake of scores of disasters across the country that have been fueled by climate change – it’s unconscionable that the administration is cutting FEMA funding that will help NYC be better prepared when the next storm comes. If this is allowed to stand, it will imperil lives and harm communities when they need help the most. Members of Congress must stand up to this and demand the agency has the resources to fulfill its mission to help people before, during, and after disasters.
In 2024, more than 90% of the electric generation that came online – that is, what’s in the nation’s “pipeline” – was renewable. Wind, solar, hydro – it is all necessary to satisfy the growing demand and ensure we have the energy we need to power our future. So if Washington wants to get energy online fast, renewable energy is the path.
The executive orders Donald Trump signed this week will not only harm public health, increase air pollution, and boost the production of planet warming emissions, they will hamstring the ability of states to provide safe, reliable American energy that has stable prices. Coal is as expensive as it is dirty – no matter how you try to dress up that pig – and the attacks on RPS standards and our climate laws are an assault on states’ rights that will have direct and severe consequences on public health, not to mention the countless American businesses that make up the clean energy supply chain and the tens of thousands of workers in the industry.
The president is bent on taking this nation’s environment and health – and apparently our economy – back decades or even longer, and it underscores the urgent need for states like New York to stand up and fight back.