Building upgrades underway (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)

This year, New York became the first state to mandate zero emission construction in new buildings through the enacted state budget for 2024. Starting in 2025, the state building code willprohibit the installation of fossil-fuel equipment in most new

Flooding on Long Island (photo: Governor's Office)

Climate change is eating Long Island away, and is projected to raise our sea level to more than50% higher than the global average. If those estimates are correct,...

Battery Park City (photo: @Ingfbruno via WikiCommons)

The state budget approved last month gave the Battery Park City Authority the ability to raise an additional $1 billion in funding for resiliency projects that will protect the southern tip of Manhattan from the worsening effects of the climate crisis.

The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) is a state entity originally created in 1968 to develop and improve the neighborhoods on the west side of Lower Manhattan. It is responsible for maintaining and upgrading the physical landscape of the 92 acres under its purview, home to nearly 17,000

Pushing an NYC 'Green New Deal' (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography)

May 22 2023 - Max Politics Podcast: New York City's 'Green New Deal' Comes Into Focus, with Pete Sikora

Pete Sikora, climate campaigns director for New York Communities for Change, joined the show to discuss implementation of New York City's "Green New Deal" — particularly Local Law 97 that deals with building emissions — and more related to climate action, green jobs, gas bans, and other topics.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter ...

New York homes (photo: (Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of the Governor)

In March, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)warned that the planet will cross a critical threshold for global warming within the next decade if we don’t take immediate action to curb emissions and meet ambitious climate mandates laid out in New York’s climate

Gov. Hochul talks clean energy (photo: Darren McGee/Governor's Office)

Climate activists are cheering New York’s $229 billion budget for the 2024 fiscal year, which was approved Tuesday night, celebrating three major policy victories and a series of additional funding allocations. The changes, seen as monumental by supporters and critics alike, include passage of legislation that will ban gas hookups in new construction, allow the state power authority to build and own renewable energy facilities, and create a “cap and invest” system with decreasing caps on greenhouse

Subway ridership in view (photo: Marc A. Hermann/MTA)

That huge sigh of relief from New York City mass transit advocates last weekend was for the state budget handshake to tack more than a billion additional dollars a year onto a key MTA funding stream, the Payroll Mobility Tax. According to both my calculations andan announcement from Gov. Kathy

A solar future (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

Climate change is here – and it is here to stay unless we take immediate action. One simple but meaningful way to make an impact is to empower property owners with the tools they need to reduce or altogether eliminate building emissions. 

Fortunately, the New York City Department of City Planning’s proposed

Max Politics Podcast: Major Transit & Climate Issues in State Budget Negotiations, with Betsy Plum & Julie Tighe

Gov. Hochul talks green energy (photo: Governor's Office)

As Governor Kathy Hochul and the Legislature continue to hammer out the details of the overdue $230 billion state budget, there are major climate and energy policies at stake that environmental advocates say are crucial to meeting New York’s climate goals.

Already about three weeks late, the state budget has been held up over the governor’s insistence on further changes to the bail law and wrangling with the Legislature over her ambitious “Housing Compact”

Climate resiliency efforts (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

Our nation faces a growing and urgent need to enhance our resilience to flooding and other natural disasters, which are becoming increasingly frequent, intense, and costly. For example, since 2000, flood-related disasters in the U.S. have accounted for more than $850 billion in damage and losses. We can no longer afford to delay action to more fully and proactively address the devastating effects of extreme weather events such as these. 

New York

Gov. Hochul talks climate (photo: Governor's Office)

New York is poised to ban fossil fuels in new buildings statewide. Apolitically popular...

Greening buildings (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

This winter had a lot of erratic weather for New Yorkers, including thesecond-warmest January ever. While less frigid temperatures may be a relief to some, they serve as a reminder that our climate is changing and these changes are having devastating impacts. Between 2017 and 2021 the U.S. experienced

Storm barriers (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

This week, on the heels of the latest sobering United Nations climate change report, the nextround of public input will close for one of the largest public infrastructure projects ever to be considered for the New York City

Rallying for Climate Justice (photo: Chandra Bocci)

We write this on behalf of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, educators, and caregivers deeply concerned for our children’s futures. Over the next few weeks, Governor Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie will finalize the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year. When they do, they must remember their littlest constituents and include the full...

Gov. Hochul talks clean energy (photo: office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

It’s time to Upgrade New York. 

Last summer Governor Hochul signed the Utility Thermal Energy and Jobs Act, sponsored by Senator Kevin Parker and Assemblymember Latoya Joyner, which passed unanimously in the Senate and nearly unanimously in the Assembly. This first-in-the nation law — supported by the New York State Building and Construction Trades Council, New York State AFL-CIO, utilities, climate justice organizations, building industry

(Credit: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

Sixty-thousand electric vehicle (EV) chargers on New York’s highways. Dozens of large-scale solar and battery storage plants, many of them in the state’s most disadvantaged counties. The largest planned deployment of offshore wind projects in the United States. Thousands of new good-paying green-energy jobs, with skills training programs to ensure they can be filled. 

New York’s already robust clean energy economy has been soaring in recent months, especially when

Gov. Hochul celebrates clean hydrogen (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)

Too often, conversations about how to address climate change have a glaring blind spot. Supporters and opponents frequently debate the merits of various clean energy solutions and argue over where to locate wind turbines and solar fields. But one key piece of the clean energy puzzle remains conspicuously absent: the people who will build and operate clean energy facilities.

We are encouraged to see that Governor Hochul is addressing the

Projects underway (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)

After voters overwhelmingly approved it last fall, state officials expect to issue the first bonds under the $4.2 billion Environmental Bond Act in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins April 1. It will take years to spend the entire sum, aimed at addressing some of the state's most dire climate and environmental needs.

The bond act authorizes the state to raise its general obligation debt to support public works in four broad categories: climate change mitigation, flood risk reduction, water quality improvement, and land

Doreen Harris & Basil Seggos (photo: @Doreen_M_Harris)

December 22, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: The Climate Action Council's Plan for New York's Future

The Co-Chairs of New York's Climate Action Council -- Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority President and CEO Doreen M. Harris -- joined the show to discuss the newly-passed NYS Climate Action Council Scoping Plan, "which outlines recommended policies and actions to help meet the goals and requirements of the nation-leading Climate

Council Members Lincoln Restler, center, & Jim Gennaro (photo: John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit)

The New York City Council is calling on Governor Kathy Hochul, the State Legislature, and other environmental leaders to strongly consider New York City as they plan and implement the next phases of the state’s sweeping climate agenda.

In a resolution adopted Wednesday the Council is urging the state to allocate New York City its

Gov. Hochul makes a green jobs announcement (photo: Governor's Office)

Governor Kathy Hochul won election in a low turnout race thanks to progressive activists, elected officials, and organizations who showed up to get out the vote. Now it’s time for her to deliver on her campaign’s climate promises and pass the Climate, Jobs and Justice legislative package.

It has been three years since New York passed its landmark climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. In that time, the state has ...

Gov. Hochul at a climate action announcement (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)

Voters across New York have approved $4.2 billion in state borrowing proposed by Governor Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature to pay for major projects environmentalists say are key to developing a more robust response to climate change and pollution.

In numbers sure to shift as more votes are counted, initial election night tallies showed about 68% of voters approving the measure, 28% disapproving, and 12% of voters not weighing in at all. The Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act

Then-Lt. Gov. Hochul opens a solar farm (photo: Philip Kamrass/ New York Power Authority)

On the back of every New Yorker's ballot this fall is a question: whether or not to allow the state to borrow $4.2 billion to pay for major clean environment and climate change mitigation infrastructure.

The provision, known as the "Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act," would authorize the state comptroller to sell bonds on behalf of the State of New York to pay for projects related to greenhouse gas emissions, flood risk, clean water, land conservation, and other climate-related

Resilient planning (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

Ten years ago, New York City received one of the biggest wake-up calls in its history – climate change was here, and we were not ready.

Superstorm Sandy, which killed 44 New Yorkers and caused $19 billion in damages and lost economic activity, was the first massive climate-change-driven storm to hit the five boroughs — and, as we are now well-aware, it wouldn’t be the last. We did learn some very important lessons.

First among them: if we are going to build, and rebuild, we need to build resiliently. That is