Climate
The Hudson Valley is at the forefront of the climate crisis. Whether it’s orange skies of wildfire smoke, catastrophic flooding, or ever-increasing utility bills, we are the ones paying the price for the fossil fuel industry’s greed.
I know this first-hand; like so many working-class people, I’ve had my lights cut off multiple times. My kids suffer from asthma and have to rush inside when the air quality degrades. The climate crisis affects all of us, and we’re running out of time.
Fossil fuel lobbyists have the ear of politicians like Didi Barrett, who uses her chairmanship of the Assembly Energy Committee to push a dangerous polluter agenda. Just look at her efforts to gut New York’s climate laws and pump more pollution into our air for decades to come. We need bold, immediate measures to tackle the climate crisis, and that requires bold new leadership.
We need a Green New Deal for the Hudson Valley. That’s why I’m fighting to:
- Reduce utility bills. The NY Home Energy Affordable Transition (HEAT) Act would help working-class families afford their power by capping utility bills at 6% of their income, saving them up to $75 per month.
- Hold polluters accountable. The Climate Change Superfund Act would require polluters to pay for their contributions to the climate crisis, helping to fund critical infrastructure projects in the process.
- Ban new fossil fuel infrastructure. Right now, we can’t afford any more pollutants in our air and water – which means we can’t let projects like the fracked gas Iroquois Pipeline expansion move forward.
- Build more renewable energy. New York is only at 4% wind and solar energy—and that number needs to go up, not down. It’s critical that we build 100% renewable energy projects.
- Bring utilities under public control. For-profit energy companies like Central Hudson, NYSEG, and National Grid don’t have our best interests at heart. That’s why they keep raising our rates. It’s time to move towards Public Power and put our private utilities under public, democratic ownership.
- Create new green union jobs and to build publicly owned renewable energy. It’s time we fully implement the recently passed Build Public Renewables Act to create tens of thousands of green union jobs across the state.
Compare to Didi Barrett’s record:
Barrett claims to be an environmentalist, but she’s actually used her chairmanship of the Assembly Energy Committee to push the fossil fuel industry’s dangerous polluter agenda by:
- Introducing controversial legislation to change the way methane emissions are measured, which would gut New York’s climate laws and pump more pollution into our air for decades to come. Barrett continues to support this dangerous legislation, despite wide condemnation from climate advocates and constituents. Even Governor Hochul has abandoned the bill.
- Refusing to co-sponsor the NY HEAT Act, which would end consumer subsidies to the gas industry and cap utility bills for low and moderate income families.
- Voting with Republicans against a December 2021 bill to reduce petroleum emissions.
