Issue Position: Climate Justice

Issue Position

Climate change is the greatest existential crisis to our society. It means more extreme heat events, more blizzards, more flooding, and more hurricanes. Worse yet, climate change disproportionately harms poor and working class people, those who contributed the least to the crisis. In the era of climate inaction at the federal level, it is more important than ever for state legislatures to step up and be climate leaders. We must put forward bold solutions towards a just transition from fossil fuels. Therefore as State Senator, I will fight for:
Passing the Climate and Communities Protection Act (CCPA) and the Climate and Communities Investment Act (CCIA) to transition New York to 100% renewable energy and make corporate polluters pay through a revenue generating carbon tax
Pushing New York to be 100% renewable by 2035
Ensuring all New York communities are afforded fair treatment and meaningful involvement in environmental decision-making, and that frontline communities and environmental justice communities have a champion in Albany
Requiring NYSERDA to stop any money in the Clean Energy Fund from funding fossil fuel projects and directing them instead to community-controlled renewable projects
Fixing the VDER (Value of Distributed Energy Resources) policy for valuing solar energy and supporting local communities to have their own solar networks

Source