New York’s lofty goal to dramatically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions has run into a major roadblock: Gov. Kathy Hochul’s election-year quest to make the state more affordable.
Hochul, who is seeking a second full term this year, is pushing lawmakers to roll back the state’s landmark 2019 climate law, which has been hailed by environmentalists and climate activists nationwide for its mandate to cut emissions 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050.
The governor, a moderate Democrat, says she stands by the intent of the law, which also includes targets to shift the state’s power grid to renewable energy. But Hochul has drawn the conclusion that the financial cost of making the climate goals a reality doesn’t align with her unrelenting focus on affordability, which she’s made the central theme of her 2026 campaign for a second full term.
Hochul has not yet made any specific proposals to scale the law back, and her negotiations with lawmakers are still in the early phases. But if her push is successful, it could dull a line of attack from gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman and other Republicans who have already dubbed the climate law the “Hochul tax.”
It would also put her directly at odds with many of her fellow Democrats at the state Capitol, more than two dozen of whom have already said they’re unwilling to roll it back.
“For us to meet the goals on the timeframe that was set by the Legislature, there's going to be enormous cost to families — enormous,” Hochul told reporters last week. “For businesses suffering from already high energy costs and tariffs, it's cataclysmic.”
Hochul has been telegraphing her concerns with the climate law for more than a year.
The governor had once been a supporter of a “cap and invest” program, which would take money garnered from allowances that polluters must buy to offset their emissions and put it toward renewable energy projects and other measures to reduce emissions. But in January 2025, her administration delayed the release of regulations for the program, which was meant to be a major driver in the state’s push to meet the goals in the climate law. That delay is now tied up in court.
Since then, Hochul had ramped up her messaging for her 2026 campaign, focusing heavily on measures meant to save New York residents money — including a universal free school meal program and rebate checks worth a few hundred dollars that went out to millions of taxpayers. She’s sprinkled her public comments with notes of concern about the cost of implementing the climate law, which would require a dramatic shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy that would require billions of dollars in upfront investment.
Then her administration significantly upped the ante.
Last month, the state Public Service Commission began accepting comments on a proposal to suspend or modify the law’s energy transition goals.
Earlier this month, the NYS Energy Research Development Authority released a three-page memo that estimated the cost of achieving the 2030 goals — which the state was already lagging well behind — could drive gasoline prices $2.23 a gallon higher than the current price and cost some New York households up to $4,000 a year in additional oil and natural gas costs.
The Hochul administration memo added fuel to the fire of an already robust debate over the law, with Republicans and business organizations pointing to it as proof that their yearslong concern over the law’s financial costs were warranted.
“These staggering statistics support what we've been saying all along: The aggressive climate law, while admirable, is not based in reality and will simply crush our industry and customers right now,” said Melissa Fleischut, president and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association.
But the memo also angered environmentalists and some Democratic state lawmakers, who believe it includes hand-picked data custom-designed to make the governor’s case. For instance, it doesn’t quantify the potential cost benefits of shifting to renewable energy.
Among those with objections is state Sen. Pete Harckham, a Democrat from Westchester County who chairs the Senate’s environmental conservation committee. During a related debate on the Senate floor last week, Harckham called the Hochul administration’s memo a “the Iraqis have weapons of mass destruction” moment, a reference to the federal government’s since-disproven justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
“This is a completely fabricated memo,” Harckham said on the Senate floor. “It's a fabricated number, cherry-picked from the most extreme circumstances.”
In an interview with Gothamist, Harckham made clear he thinks Hochul should leave the law in place.
“The law is the law,” he said. “The objective of the [climate law] is to transition away from dirty and more expensive fossil fuels to cleaner renewables. And that's the law of the New York state right now.”
Hochul’s push to rein in the measure, however, comes at a time when climate-focused voters seem to have little choice in the upcoming gubernatorial election.
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado had been running a primary challenge to Hochul’s left, bashing her for her “moral failures” on climate issues and vowing to finalize the cap-and-invest program the governor delayed. But he scrapped his campaign last month after failing to gain traction in the polls.
Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, is an avowed critic of the climate law and has said he will push for its repeal, calling it a “green energy scam” and calling it a “utility bill bomb that is exploding on kitchen tables across New York.”
Even if Hochul does successfully roll back the law’s goals, Republicans have made clear they intend to use the measure against the governor, who was then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s lieutenant governor when he signed it into law in 2019. At a news conference at the Capitol on Wednesday, legislative Republicans stood behind a podium that said “Stop the Cuomo/Hochul Tax!”
“Kathy Hochul didn’t just support this insane law; she sold it to New Yorkers,” Blakeman said in a statement. “Hochul traveled the state touting it as the ‘gold standard’ for energy. What families and seniors got instead were skyrocketing utility bills they can’t afford and an energy system designed to fail our state.”
Hochul, in turn, has faulted Blakeman for his support of President Donald Trump, whom Hochul has clashed with on a major offshore wind farm off the coast of Long Island.
“Bruce Blakeman agrees with Donald Trump on everything, even as this president tries to kill critical energy projects that grow New York jobs and make power reliable and affordable,” Hochul campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki said in a statement.
Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, say they have yet to see a concrete proposal from Hochul’s office.
The chairs of the Legislature’s energy and environmental committees met with Hochul’s administration in recent weeks to discuss the governor’s concerns.
On Thursday, 29 of the state Senate’s 41 Democrats signed on to a letter to the governor saying they “categorically oppose any effort to rollback New York’s nation-leading climate law.”
“We stand ready to work with you and your administration to implement comprehensive climate policies that truly meet the needs of this moment — but we cannot support abandoning our commitment to climate progress,” wrote the Democratic lawmakers, including Senate Finance Chair Liz Krueger of Manhattan.
Hochul and lawmakers are facing a March 31 deadline to have a budget in place before the start of the state’s fiscal year. But that deadline is often aspirational; since Hochul took office in 2021, the budget has been late each year.
Includes reporting by Rosemary Misdary.
