Affordability Politics Took On New York’s Climate Law — and Won

When New York passed its first major climate law in 2019, climate advocates hailed the work as a milestone: The Empire State vowed to cut its carbon emissions by 40% by 2030, as compared to their 1990 levels, giving it some of the world’s most ambitious subnational climate policy. But last week, Governor Kathy Hochul and the state legislature moved to rewrite key provisions in that law, weakening deadlines and redefining its emissions math.

What happened? And would New York have ever been able to hit its 2030 goal? On this episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by Emily Pontecorvo, a founding staff writer at Heatmap. They discuss how New York has changed its targets, why it has altered its approach to natural gas, and whether state-level climate goals can survive an age of affordability politics.

Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap News.

You can find a full transcript of the episode here.

Mentioned:

How New York Is Weakening Its Climate Law, by Emily Pontecorvo

LA Times: After heated debate, California updates key climate limit. Critics say it’s a retreat

This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by ...

Heatmap Pro brings all of our research, reporting, and insights down to the local level. The software platform tracks all local opposition to clean energy and data centers, forecasts community sentiment, and guides data-driven engagement campaigns. Book a demo today to see the premier intelligence platform for project permitting and community engagement.

Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(152)

Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Trump’s Pro-Nuclear, Pro-Fossil Fuel Agenda

Since taking office last year, the Trump administration has blocked renewable energy development and attacked climate change policy, prioritized fossil fuels and encouraged nuclear energy, and started...

25 Sep 30min

What Does The Nuclear Company Do?

In the past few years, something surprising has happened in American energy policy: States and utilities have started trying to build new nuclear plants.A new kind of company — the nuclear developer —...

23 Sep 53min

Starting a Giant Online Data Platform Is the Easy Part

America has some of the world’s best data about its own internal energy, industrial economy, and carbon emissions. That’s thanks to a federal agency called the U.S. Energy Information Administration, ...

16 Sep 35min

Shift Key Classic: What Is a Watt?

As we catch up from summer vacation, we’re bringing you a favorite from the Shift Key archive. We’ll be back in your feed with more fresh episodes starting next week.What is the difference between ene...

9 Sep 47min

How to Understand America’s Gigantic Natural Gas Buildout

The United States is staring down a natural gas buildout of gigantic proportions.Amazon wants to build what would be the country’s largest power plant in Texas — and run it entirely on natural gas. No...

2 Sep 50min

Trump’s Clean Energy Repeal Was Even More Costly Than We Thought

Two years ago, Donald Trump made an outlandish campaign promise: He would cut Americans’ power bills in half.It was a ridiculous, impossible pledge — but even so, the affordability problem didn’t need...

27 Aug 1h 3min

Who Pays for Wildfire Prevention? If You’re in California, You Do — in Your Power Bill.

California now has the most expensive electricity in the continental United States. It also has expensive housing … and an increasingly broken home insurance market.Are the three phenomena linked? The...

20 Aug 41min

Why This El Niño Looks Like a Monster

Every few years, the Pacific Ocean’s surface waters become especially warm near the equator, a climatic phenomenon known as El Niño.El Niño is a normal part of the climate system, but even in a normal...

12 Aug 47min