Climate part of state budget delay - - The Adirondack Almanack - Adirondack Almanack

Climate part of state budget delay - - The Adirondack Almanack

It looks like it could be another week or more before we have a state budget, which was due April 1. Gov. Kathy Hochul in a statement today said she is submitting a bill to the legislature to extend the budget deadline to April 10.

“New Yorkers are concerned about public safety, the rising cost of housing, and ensuring high-quality schools for all our kids, and any budget deal must make progress on these core issues,” Hochul said. “I have been negotiating in good faith with the legislature, but it is clear there is more work to be done before we reach an agreement.”

Hochul does not mention climate change in her statement, but that’s another issue coming up in budget negotiations. Energy Committee Chair Sen. Kevin Parker, wants to change the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Environmental groups say the changes are not for the better.

Parker proposed legislation that would have New York use a 100-year global warming potential instead of the law’s current 20-year global warming potential. It would also not count methane emissions in the state’s greenhouse gas inventory. What is global warming potential? The University of California describes it as a measurement of “how effective each gas is at trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere” compared to carbon dioxide. That helps us “better understand how a gas warms our planet.” For example, over a century, one ton of methane has the same global warming impact as 28-34 tons of carbon dioxide. Over the shorter timeframe—20 years—one ton of methane is about the same as 84-86 tons carbon dioxide.

Most of the United States uses the 100-year global warming potential, but New York passed the stricter timeline in its climate law. In the bill’s justification text, the proposed change would bring the state in alignment with most others and would save taxpayers’ money. It does not say how much. But environmental organizations and some lawmakers oppose the bill. NY Renews, an environmental coalition, said it would “pave the way for polluting corporations to emit without consequence.”

Sen. Pete Harckham, who chairs the environmental conservation committee, said the proposed changes during budget negotiations are “ill-advised and ill-timed.”

“Climate science has clearly evolved to demonstrate that methane is the immediate threat and heats the planet faster than carbon dioxide,” Harckham said. “That’s why members of the Climate Action Council toiled hundreds of hours to determine that the 20-year accounting, not the 100-year accounting, is the appropriate policy for New York to take.”

We’ll see how it unfolds during the next week of budget talks.

Gov. Kathy Hochul. Photo by Gwendolyn Craig

This first appeared in Gwen’s weekly “Adirondack Report” newsletter. Click here to sign up.