Countdown to Zero: In the Dark

Seven years ago, New York enacted a law to eliminate fossil fuels as a source of electricity by 2040. The grand plan has not been going well.
When Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican whose district includes Philipstown, stood before the partially deconstructed Indian Point nuclear plant earlier this month, he pointed to its 2021 closing as an example of Democrats creating "an absolute disaster for New York's energy grid."
As part of a long-shot bid to get the reactors restarted, he cited the state ban on fracking gas, the blocking of pipelines, the denial of permits to the Danskammer methane power plant near Newburgh, electric vehicle mandates, laws to electrify construction and, most of all, "the passage of the disastrous CLCPA."
The state enacted the Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act in 2019. Its goal was to transition over several decades to renewable energy sources that don't contribute to global warming. This week, the United Nations issued the latest in a series of increasingly alarmed announcements. "Planet Earth is being pushed beyond its limits," said U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, urging the world to transition away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible. "Every key climate indicator is flashing red."

The climate law has three primary targets: (1) 70 percent of electricity produced by renewable sources by 2030; (2) complete zero-emissions electricity by 2040, and (3) 85 percent less greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 than were produced in 1990.
Lawler and other critics argue that the law is unrealistic and costly. "Hudson Valley families are being suffocated with rising energy costs because of Gov. [Kathy] Hochul's failed and disastrous energy policies," he said at Indian Point. "It is time to reverse course."
Those who support the climate law are also frustrated with it, for different reasons. "These claims that we're seeing that the climate law is the cause of the energy emergency and the cost-of-living emergency and affordability crisis are pretty bunk, because the law isn't being implemented," said Kobi Naseck, the director of programs for the coalition group New York Renews.
In October, a state judge in Ulster County agreed, siding with a contingent of environmental groups that sued the state for failing to follow the law. Last summer, a state analysis found that New York is three years behind its 2030 goal and six years behind its 2040 goal. Smaller, less-publicized climate targets in the law have fared no better. An online tracking tool created by Columbia University lists actions that have missed deadlines, from the collection and disposal of mercury thermostats to the capture of methane from landfills to energy audits of larger buildings.

The lawsuit argues that the state is paying lip service to its emission-reduction goals because it has not established any way to enforce industry violations. New York did announce a "cap-and-invest" program in which large-scale polluters would be fined for emissions over a certain threshold; the fines would be invested in renewable energy, upgrading the electrical grid, creating jobs and consumer rebates, among other benefits.
But after two years gathering comments and creating outlines, Hochul in January 2025 "made it clear that those regulations were not going to be coming anytime soon, and there was no Plan B for what the state was going to do to implement the climate law," said Rachel Spector, a lawyer with Earthjustice, the lead organization in the lawsuit against the state.
The judge in Ulster County gave the state two options: Issue the overdue regulations or change the law.
Last week, Hochul said she would work with the state Legislature to change the law. "We need more time," she said, proposing that the state promise to adopt regulations by the end of 2030 and change the 2040 and 2050 target dates.
Hochul also wants to change the way the state calculates emissions, particularly methane and biofuels, using a more forgiving formula. She is pus...