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

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

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”

(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

Rooftop solar (photo: Governor's Office)

It’s beyond dispute that the fossil fuel industry has perpetrated a multi-decade misinformation campaign that has led some policymakers, the media, and much of public opinion down a rabbit hole of climate denial. Now they’ve got their sights on New York State’s climate legislation and initiatives. 

The cynically dubbed front group “New Yorkers for Affordable Energy” has...

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

Rooftop solar panels (photo: Gabriel López Albarrán)

October 13, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: The Environmental Bond Act Ballot Proposal and Other Key Climate Issues

Proposal 1 on the 2022 general election ballot is a statewide referendum on the $4.2 billion Environmental Bond Act, which New York voters will approve or disapprove this fall. Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters, and Amy Chester, managing director of Rebuild by Design, joined the show to discuss the bond act and other major New York climate issues.

Listen to the

Rooftop solar (photo: Governor's Office)

As Mayor Eric Adams’ administration follows ambitious mandates to achieve carbon neutrality over the next few decades, the City Council on Thursday examined the state of renewable energy infrastructure in the city, needs for the future, and both city and state legislation that could help expedite the path towards a zero-emissions energy grid and economy.

At a hearing of the Council’s Committee on Environmental Protection, chaired by Queens Council Member Jim Gennaro, administration officials testified to ongoing efforts at sourcing and converting to

Gov. Hochul with electric vehicles (photo: office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

In a race with many clear differences, there may be no issue on which Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul and Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin are offering more divergent visions in this year’s New York gubernatorial election than on climate and environmental policy.

While Hochul seeks a full term to continue implementation of New York’s sweeping shift to renewable energy and advance many policies related to environmental protection, Zeldin has been

Electric vehicle charging (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

It’s Climate Week but you don’t need to be an environmental expert to see the devastation and daily effect that fossil-fuel driven climate change has on our communities. 

Whether it’s the oppressive heat waves rolling over our cities, families being washed away by deadly flash floods, or any of the other extreme weather events we have to contend with now as part of our day-to-day lives, the immediate and irreparable impact of the quickening pace of climate change is all around us.

This scary scenario begs the

The Calverton Solar Energy Center, Riverhead, NY (photo: National Grid)

This week, thousands of leaders are in New York for Climate Week 2022. While the presentations and networking are happening in New York City, the action is taking place to the east on Long Island. 

As more clean energy solutions like offshore wind, solar, battery storage, and clean hydrogen surface, Long Island is quickly emerging as a clean energy hub. Applying the solutions that are working here to other communities throughout the Northeast will be critical to

Senator Chuck Schumer (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)

***Update: The Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act in a party-line vote on Sunday, August 7, though with some changes since the original deal was announced by Senate Majority Leader Schumer and Senator Manchin. The final agreement included a narrower corporate minimum tax and dropped the closure of the carried interest loophole, at the urging of Senator Kyrsten Sinema, though Schumer added an excise tax on stock buybacks to the bill. Republicans, on the other hand, blocked a cap on the price of insulin under private

Climate march (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

The Democrat-led state Legislature ended its session over the weekend without passing any additional major pieces of climate-related legislation that some legislators and activists had been pushing for months. The failure to act has provided renewed vigor to several candidates running in the primaries this year who had already been centering climate action in their campaigns, many of them challenging incumbent Democrats.

They say that the state must take immediate and extraordinary action as the adverse effects of climate change continue

Bitcoin is a popular cryptocurrency (photo: Kanchanara)

Like time inSteve Miller’s classic-rock song, New York’s decarbonization targets keep slipping into the future.

...

Mayor Adams and others discuss wind energy plans (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

New York’s sweeping Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019 set the state on a path to reaching net-zero emissions over the next three decades. The law established a Climate Action Council that drafted a framework for achieving that goal, and is now more than halfway through the process of seeking public input on its proposed plan. 

The Council held its seventh public hearing on Tuesday in Brooklyn, out of

Rooftop solar (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

In 1883, Charles Fritts coated selenium with a thin layer of gold on a New York City rooftop to create a current activated by exposure to light, and thus thefirst solar panel was born. Though it achieved an energy conversion rate of just 1 to 2%, his work spurred the beginning of

Rooftop solar (photo: Ethan Geringer-Sameth)

It was a small world on the roof of a five-storey co-op in West Harlem where Michael Anglin, the building’s treasurer, was showing off its solar panels.

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and a team from his office were touring the configuration to understand what went into installing it in the heavily-regulated city, considered by industry insiders to be one of the hardest markets in the world to erect solar panels. Also there was Rit Aggarwala, Lander's long-time associate

Climate action (photo: Paige Polk/Mayoral Photography Office)

With the global climate crisis heading to the point of no return, dozens of climate activist groups are rallying ahead of Earth Day, April 22, calling on Governor Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature to pass a a raft of bills they say are crucial to the local and global effort to fight climate change, global warming, and their ill effects.

The bills include efforts to cut carbon emissions, build green infrastructure, reduce the state’s reliance on fossil fuels, prevent harmful cryptocurrency mining, and create tens of thousands of

Earth Week 2022 in New York (photo: Office of Governor Hochul)

April 19, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Earth Week 2022 in New York, with Julie Tighe & Daniel Zarrilli

Julie Tighe, President of the New York League of Conservation Voters, and Daniel Zarrilli is the Special Advisor on Climate & Sustainability at Columbia University and former New York City Chief Climate Policy Advisor, joined the show during Earth Week 2022 to discuss New York climate and environmental policy. 

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

New York City from above (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

It doesn't often happen that New York State has an opportunity to take decisive and meaningful action to address deep-rooted issues that have plagued the Bronx, New York City, and our state for way too long — environmental injustice and climate change.

This month, the seven members of the New York State Public Service Commission hold our fate in their hands as they vote on the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE), a permitted and shovel-ready