Renewable Heat Now Criticizes State Assembly for Failing to Pass NY HEAT Act
With significant rate hikes looming, we urge the Assembly to reconvene and pass the NY HEAT Act (A.4592B/S.2016B). This legislation aims to eliminate outdated laws that mandate public investment in costly gas infrastructure, thereby enabling New Yorkers to transition to cleaner, safer, and more affordable heating systems. Aligning utility regulations with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) goals, the NY HEAT Act would significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and enhance energy affordability for all New Yorkers.
“… the bill would also bring relief to the 1.4 million households …”
Crucially, the bill would also bring relief to the 1.4 million households struggling to afford their energy bills by setting a standard that households should not pay more than 6% of their income for utility bills. This would be achieved through energy efficiency, renewable energy credits, and more robust bill discounts for struggling households.
The Renewable Heat Now campaign extends heartfelt gratitude to the advocates and allies who tirelessly championed NY HEAT. Your commitment brought NY HEAT close to passage this year. We remain determined to fight for cleaner heat and lower bills.
Organizational Quotes:
“While our streets become rivers and our planet becomes an oven, the Assembly continues to drop the ball on the most important issue of our lifetime: moving off climate-killing fossil fuels. Despite overwhelming support for the NY HEAT Act, Assembly Speaker Heastie and his allies let this critical legislation die for the second year in a row,” said Laura Shindell, New York Senior Organizer with Food & Water Watch. “Flooding, wildfires, extreme heat, and skyrocketing energy bills will not cease just because our Assemblymembers ignored their constituents’ will. This fight is not over—New Yorkers need the NY HEAT Act, and we’ll be back.”
“The failure to pass the NY HEAT Act this session is deeply disappointing for mothers and caregivers across NY state who strive for a better future for our children. Without this crucial legislation, the burden of high utility bills continues to fall on the most vulnerable families, and our progress toward a sustainable future is stalled. We will continue to push for policies that ensure a cleaner, safer environment for all,” said Bella Cockerell, NY State Manager, Mothers Out Front.
“Despite passing the Climate Superfund Act, by rejecting the NY HEAT Act yet again, just days after the Governor’s reversal on Congestion Pricing, the Assembly has made itself known as the house that opposes climate action,” said Keanu Arpels-Josiah, Policy Co-Lead with Fridays For Future NYC. “Our schools are flooding, our skies are turning orange, and our window to save our future is disappearing, yet Speaker Carl Heastie and his Assembly have again prioritized gas company profits over protecting our generation and communities. The Assembly must use the passage of the Climate Superfund Act to begin a policy shift on climate, starting with allowing a vote on the NY HEAT Act.”
“Some NYS Assembly members prioritized their reelection prospects and campaign contributions from the fracked gas industry over the health, affordability, and well-being of all New Yorkers by blocking the NY HEAT Act for a third consecutive year. This severely undermines the state’s climate law and locks in future utility bill hikes. We will continue to organize, build more people-power, hold the Assembly accountable, and will not rest until the NY HEAT Act becomes law,” said Anshul Gupta, a trained leader of the Climate Reality Project.
“May 2024 marked the 12th consecutive month of record-breaking temperatures. Yet, the NY Assembly failed their constituents today by not passing the NY HEAT Act and choosing to subsidize gas infrastructure and fossil fuel companies at the expense of New Yorkers who bear the burden of increased utility rates and climate change impacts. The NY HEAT Act provides the systemic policy changes needed to address the dual crises of climate change and spiraling energy burdens,” said Kristen Van Hooreweghe, Senior Director of Programs, Climate Solutions Accelerator.
Kim Fraczek, Director of Sane Energy Project, said, “Governor Hochul and Speaker Heastie have shown their true colors by prioritizing corporate interests over New Yorkers by neglecting the NY HEAT Act. Their short-sightedness is evident as National Grid prepares to burden downstate residents with skyrocketing utility bills to support its outdated gas infrastructure. We hold Hochul and Heastie accountable for these impending financial hardships and their obstruction of meaningful climate action.”
Bob Cohen, Policy Director of Citizen Action of New York, said, “The Assembly’s failure to pass NY HEAT at the end of the session this year was a remarkable failure of vision and leadership. New Yorkers upstate and downstate face rate increase proposals by National Grid, and continued fossil fuel infrastructure maintenance contributes to climate destruction. The state Public Service Commission needs to be instructed by the Legislature and the Governor to move off fossil fuels, and NY HEAT provides a path forward. We must do better in 2025 and pass NY HEAT early next session.”
Adam Flint, Director of Clean Energy Programs at the Network for a Sustainable Tomorrow (NEST), said, “After more than a decade of supporting New Yorkers in benefiting from the clean energy transition, we’ve concluded that Assembly leadership and the Governor are not serious about implementing our climate law and are doing the bidding of fossil fuel interests. These officials have cynically taken credit for New York’s climate leadership while undermining real progress. We will have no hesitation in telling communities who is responsible for skyrocketing heating and cooling costs, or limitations of clean energy programs, or suffering from climate change effects. We will keep pressing for NY HEAT and other policies until all New Yorkers can enjoy the benefits of the clean energy economy.”
Megan Ahearn, NYPIRG Program Director, said, “The New York Assembly leaders have once again let the public down by failing to pass the NY HEAT Act at the end of the legislative session. Amid the Governor’s delay on congestion pricing, New York is moving in the wrong direction on tackling climate pollution. The NY HEAT Act is the solution to reduce skyrocketing utility bills, cut air pollution, and unwind the web of climate-destructive pipelines. By pushing needed climate action later, the Assembly Majority and Speaker Heastie are placing the worsening impacts of the climate crisis on today’s youth and environmental justice communities.”
Allison Considine, New York Senior Campaigns & Communications Manager at the Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC), said, “The Building Decarbonization Coalition is disappointed in the failure to deliver New Yorkers cleaner heat and lower bills by passing the NY HEAT Act. This failure to plan for a managed, phased, and equitable transition to clean heat and cooling is a plan to fail. But the building decarbonization movement in New York is growing, and it will not stop until the legislature passes NY HEAT.”
Christine Hoffer, Executive Director, New York Geothermal Energy Organization, said, “NY HEAT is a common-sense way to remove barriers that prevent New Yorkers from accessing clean, affordable, job-creating energy solutions, such as geothermal heating and cooling. It was a mistake to leave this logical next step from New York’s Climate Plan on the table as the legislative session ended. NY-GEO stands ready to work with our elected leaders to correct that mistake as soon as possible to provide cleaner heat and lower bills for ratepayers across the state.”
“This has deadly implications as we head into another hot summer …”
Stephan Edel, NY Renews Executive Director, said, “By failing to pass the NY HEAT Act this session, the Governor and New York State Assembly chose the fossil-fueled status quo over the health and wallets of working New Yorkers. By prioritizing corporate fossil fuel profits, the Governor and Assembly sentenced households to ever-rising energy costs from unaffordable fracked gas, as well as toxic fumes that impact our lives and health. With another summer of extreme weather ahead, it’s clear there’s no more time to wait. We must shift NY’s main energy source from gas and oil to renewable sources and lower our bills in the process—something NY HEAT could deliver if our leaders chose to act.”
Renee Vogelsang, New York Director at Frack Action, said, “Frack Action is disappointed in the New York State Assembly’s failure to move New York toward cleaner energy and lower utility bills. Every day we continue to use and connect to fossil fuels, we dig ourselves deeper into a climate and public health crisis. The NY HEAT Act was a major missed opportunity to show leadership in this state and across the nation. Our movement will only become bigger, better, and broader as we move ahead.”
Clarke Gocker, Sr. Director of Movement Building at PUSH Buffalo, said, “By the end of the NYS legislative session, Assembly leadership failed to stand up to the gas industry and protect vulnerable communities on the frontlines of the climate and energy affordability crises by calling for a vote to pass the NY HEAT Act. Their inaction was unconscionable and cowardly. It will reverberate across our region as resources continue to be siphoned away from community-led climate solutions to instead line the pockets of gas utility executives and shareholders. This has got to stop, and we must fight on. PUSH Buffalo is determined to build the power we need as a movement to win a just transition to a healthy, renewable energy future for all New Yorkers.”
Roger Downs, Conservation Director for the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, said, “New York cannot make the transition to healthy, cost-effective, and emissions-free buildings if we continue to facilitate and subsidize new fracked gas infrastructure over efficient heat pumps and thermal energy networks. Study after study shows that inaction is always the most expensive option for addressing the climate crisis. The Assembly cannot fail New Yorkers again by refusing to end fossil fuel entitlements in our public service law. Speaker Carl Heastie should bring the Assembly back to Albany and finish the job in 2024 by passing the NY HEAT Act.”
Betta Broad, Director, Advocacy & Organizing, Association for Energy Affordability, said, “By passing the NY HEAT Act, New York would have become the first state to begin a strategic downsizing of the gas distribution system, enabling an equitable transition off fossil gas in our building sector. It is an enormous missed opportunity and failure of leadership that once again the legislative session ended without amending antiquated public service laws or enacting real affordability protections. We will continue working with our coalition partners to ensure that NY HEAT passes in the near future so we can finally begin shifting ratepayer-funded investments from outdated, climate-warming, air-polluting gas infrastructure to weatherization, high efficiency heat pumps, and induction stoves, wherever possible.”
“… our representatives’ shameful inaction on climate catastrophe …”
Niki Cross, Staff Attorney at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, said, “The New Yorkers already facing the worst consequences of our representatives’ shameful inaction on climate catastrophe are once again abandoned for the sake of fossil fuel corporations’ heinous wealth. The people have given a clear demand for rapid climate action through the passage of bills like NY HEAT, in line with the minimum mandates of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.”
Elijah Conlin, Director of Zero Hour New York State, said, “With the climate crisis already underway, the need to make a healthy change that takes into account everyone in New York State, rather than only the wealthy, has never been more apparent. The NY HEAT Act would have been a crucial first step in ensuring that the Green Revolution can be for all. The Climate Crisis has been an issue passed onto the next generation for far too long. We are out of time, and we need to act NOW, or we won’t have any more future generations to pass the burden onto!”
“… the Governor and Speaker have taken the side of the fossil fuel industry …”
Peter Bardaglio, coordinator of the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative, said, “It’s hard not to be cynical watching Governor Hochul and Speaker Heastie play with the lives of New Yorkers. The climate crisis is upon us, and it demands a response proportional to its catastrophic effects. By refusing to back the NY HEAT Act, in contrast to its passage in the Senate, the Governor and Speaker have taken the side of the fossil fuel industry, which has misled the public about the harmful effects of pouring carbon and methane into the atmosphere. The NY HEAT Act provides a sensible way to accelerate the energy transition, meet the requirements of the 2019 climate law, and help disadvantaged communities across the state. This is more than a missed opportunity; it’s an act of reckless neglect in favor of record corporate profits that will set back the climate effort in New York by years.”
Ben Elkind, Lead Organizer of the New York Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC-NY), said, “Jewish tradition teaches that “you are not required to finish your work, yet neither are you permitted to desist from it” (Pirkei Avot). The work of addressing climate change may not be finished in our lifetimes and will not be tackled by New Yorkers alone, but it cannot be completed unless New York’s political leaders act year in and year out to reduce our emissions. The Reform Jewish Movement in New York is deeply disappointed by the failure of New York’s legislature to do so this session and, specifically, to enact the NY HEAT Act. We call on the Assembly to pass the NY HEAT Act next session.”
“Our state has still yet to fulfill the promise of the CLCPA …”
Daniel Atonna, Political Coordinator at For the Many, said, “Governor Hochul and Assembly leadership failed New Yorkers. It’s clear that fossil fuel companies and private utilities are allowed to run the show in Albany. The climate crisis is accelerating every day. We cannot afford another legislative session without significant progress on our renewable energy mandates. Hochul and Speaker Heastie must pass the NY HEAT Act and so much more.”
Beacon Climate Action Now (BCAN) is extremely disappointed in the NY State legislature for its failure to meet the moment and pass the NY HEAT Act. We did our work as constituents: we educated the public about this important legislation, met with legislators, traveled to Albany to lobby for the bill, and made hundreds of calls to our representatives. But our legislators did not do their job—they let a bill that would help us reach the state’s climate goals die, and the working families of our membership directly affected by this failure will continue to pay the price of high utility bills. While we are disappointed, we are not discouraged. We will continue to fight for NY HEAT because we know it is crucial to making a just transition off fossil fuels.
“… there will be no plan to transition communities across the state …”
Ruth Foster, Co-Chair of the Sheridan Hollow Alliance for Renewable Energy (SHARE), said, “The Sheridan Hollow Alliance for Renewable Energy (SHARE) has been working for years to shut down a polluting power plant in the neighborhood next to the Capitol in Albany. Without the NY HEAT Act, there will be no plan to transition communities across the state to clean renewable power. The climate crisis and New York’s climate law demand that we move quickly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Assembly and Governor Hochul must take immediate action to meet our climate goals, starting with passing the NY HEAT Act.
Ryan Madden, Climate & Energy Campaigns Director, Long Island Progressive Coalition, said, “The failure to pass NY HEAT is a failure of leadership in the NYS Assembly, with grave consequences for burdened ratepayers on Long Island. Instead of saving over $150 per month, communities now face National Grid rate hikes without any protection. This should be a top priority the next time the legislature convenes. It’s inexcusable to further delay both the implementation of our climate law and needed utility relief for struggling constituents.”
Vanessa Fajans-Turner, Executive Director for Environmental Advocates NY, said, “Passing the NY HEAT Act is essential for meeting our climate goals and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. At a time when affordability is critical for families, this bill is a no-brainer. It empowers New York to align utilities with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, promoting cleaner air and protecting public health. It’s a vital step for a sustainable future, ensuring affordable energy for all New Yorkers, especially low-to-moderate income households. The legislature must prioritize clean energy and lower utility bills now.”
Photo credit: HWM.
Renewable Heat Now Criticizes State Assembly for Failing to Pass NY HEAT Act
With significant rate hikes looming, we urge the Assembly to reconvene and pass the NY HEAT Act (A.4592B/S.2016B). This legislation aims to eliminate outdated laws that mandate public investment in costly gas infrastructure, thereby enabling New Yorkers to transition to cleaner, safer, and more affordable heating systems. Aligning utility regulations with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) goals, the NY HEAT Act would significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and enhance energy affordability for all New Yorkers.
“… the bill would also bring relief to the 1.4 million households …”
Crucially, the bill would also bring relief to the 1.4 million households struggling to afford their energy bills by setting a standard that households should not pay more than 6% of their income for utility bills. This would be achieved through energy efficiency, renewable energy credits, and more robust bill discounts for struggling households.
The Renewable Heat Now campaign extends heartfelt gratitude to the advocates and allies who tirelessly championed NY HEAT. Your commitment brought NY HEAT close to passage this year. We remain determined to fight for cleaner heat and lower bills.
Organizational Quotes:
“While our streets become rivers and our planet becomes an oven, the Assembly continues to drop the ball on the most important issue of our lifetime: moving off climate-killing fossil fuels. Despite overwhelming support for the NY HEAT Act, Assembly Speaker Heastie and his allies let this critical legislation die for the second year in a row,” said Laura Shindell, New York Senior Organizer with Food & Water Watch. “Flooding, wildfires, extreme heat, and skyrocketing energy bills will not cease just because our Assemblymembers ignored their constituents’ will. This fight is not over—New Yorkers need the NY HEAT Act, and we’ll be back.”
“The failure to pass the NY HEAT Act this session is deeply disappointing for mothers and caregivers across NY state who strive for a better future for our children. Without this crucial legislation, the burden of high utility bills continues to fall on the most vulnerable families, and our progress toward a sustainable future is stalled. We will continue to push for policies that ensure a cleaner, safer environment for all,” said Bella Cockerell, NY State Manager, Mothers Out Front.
“Despite passing the Climate Superfund Act, by rejecting the NY HEAT Act yet again, just days after the Governor’s reversal on Congestion Pricing, the Assembly has made itself known as the house that opposes climate action,” said Keanu Arpels-Josiah, Policy Co-Lead with Fridays For Future NYC. “Our schools are flooding, our skies are turning orange, and our window to save our future is disappearing, yet Speaker Carl Heastie and his Assembly have again prioritized gas company profits over protecting our generation and communities. The Assembly must use the passage of the Climate Superfund Act to begin a policy shift on climate, starting with allowing a vote on the NY HEAT Act.”
“Some NYS Assembly members prioritized their reelection prospects and campaign contributions from the fracked gas industry over the health, affordability, and well-being of all New Yorkers by blocking the NY HEAT Act for a third consecutive year. This severely undermines the state’s climate law and locks in future utility bill hikes. We will continue to organize, build more people-power, hold the Assembly accountable, and will not rest until the NY HEAT Act becomes law,” said Anshul Gupta, a trained leader of the Climate Reality Project.
“May 2024 marked the 12th consecutive month of record-breaking temperatures. Yet, the NY Assembly failed their constituents today by not passing the NY HEAT Act and choosing to subsidize gas infrastructure and fossil fuel companies at the expense of New Yorkers who bear the burden of increased utility rates and climate change impacts. The NY HEAT Act provides the systemic policy changes needed to address the dual crises of climate change and spiraling energy burdens,” said Kristen Van Hooreweghe, Senior Director of Programs, Climate Solutions Accelerator.
Kim Fraczek, Director of Sane Energy Project, said, “Governor Hochul and Speaker Heastie have shown their true colors by prioritizing corporate interests over New Yorkers by neglecting the NY HEAT Act. Their short-sightedness is evident as National Grid prepares to burden downstate residents with skyrocketing utility bills to support its outdated gas infrastructure. We hold Hochul and Heastie accountable for these impending financial hardships and their obstruction of meaningful climate action.”
Bob Cohen, Policy Director of Citizen Action of New York, said, “The Assembly’s failure to pass NY HEAT at the end of the session this year was a remarkable failure of vision and leadership. New Yorkers upstate and downstate face rate increase proposals by National Grid, and continued fossil fuel infrastructure maintenance contributes to climate destruction. The state Public Service Commission needs to be instructed by the Legislature and the Governor to move off fossil fuels, and NY HEAT provides a path forward. We must do better in 2025 and pass NY HEAT early next session.”
Adam Flint, Director of Clean Energy Programs at the Network for a Sustainable Tomorrow (NEST), said, “After more than a decade of supporting New Yorkers in benefiting from the clean energy transition, we’ve concluded that Assembly leadership and the Governor are not serious about implementing our climate law and are doing the bidding of fossil fuel interests. These officials have cynically taken credit for New York’s climate leadership while undermining real progress. We will have no hesitation in telling communities who is responsible for skyrocketing heating and cooling costs, or limitations of clean energy programs, or suffering from climate change effects. We will keep pressing for NY HEAT and other policies until all New Yorkers can enjoy the benefits of the clean energy economy.”
Megan Ahearn, NYPIRG Program Director, said, “The New York Assembly leaders have once again let the public down by failing to pass the NY HEAT Act at the end of the legislative session. Amid the Governor’s delay on congestion pricing, New York is moving in the wrong direction on tackling climate pollution. The NY HEAT Act is the solution to reduce skyrocketing utility bills, cut air pollution, and unwind the web of climate-destructive pipelines. By pushing needed climate action later, the Assembly Majority and Speaker Heastie are placing the worsening impacts of the climate crisis on today’s youth and environmental justice communities.”
Allison Considine, New York Senior Campaigns & Communications Manager at the Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC), said, “The Building Decarbonization Coalition is disappointed in the failure to deliver New Yorkers cleaner heat and lower bills by passing the NY HEAT Act. This failure to plan for a managed, phased, and equitable transition to clean heat and cooling is a plan to fail. But the building decarbonization movement in New York is growing, and it will not stop until the legislature passes NY HEAT.”
Christine Hoffer, Executive Director, New York Geothermal Energy Organization, said, “NY HEAT is a common-sense way to remove barriers that prevent New Yorkers from accessing clean, affordable, job-creating energy solutions, such as geothermal heating and cooling. It was a mistake to leave this logical next step from New York’s Climate Plan on the table as the legislative session ended. NY-GEO stands ready to work with our elected leaders to correct that mistake as soon as possible to provide cleaner heat and lower bills for ratepayers across the state.”
“This has deadly implications as we head into another hot summer …”
Stephan Edel, NY Renews Executive Director, said, “By failing to pass the NY HEAT Act this session, the Governor and New York State Assembly chose the fossil-fueled status quo over the health and wallets of working New Yorkers. By prioritizing corporate fossil fuel profits, the Governor and Assembly sentenced households to ever-rising energy costs from unaffordable fracked gas, as well as toxic fumes that impact our lives and health. With another summer of extreme weather ahead, it’s clear there’s no more time to wait. We must shift NY’s main energy source from gas and oil to renewable sources and lower our bills in the process—something NY HEAT could deliver if our leaders chose to act.”
Renee Vogelsang, New York Director at Frack Action, said, “Frack Action is disappointed in the New York State Assembly’s failure to move New York toward cleaner energy and lower utility bills. Every day we continue to use and connect to fossil fuels, we dig ourselves deeper into a climate and public health crisis. The NY HEAT Act was a major missed opportunity to show leadership in this state and across the nation. Our movement will only become bigger, better, and broader as we move ahead.”
Clarke Gocker, Sr. Director of Movement Building at PUSH Buffalo, said, “By the end of the NYS legislative session, Assembly leadership failed to stand up to the gas industry and protect vulnerable communities on the frontlines of the climate and energy affordability crises by calling for a vote to pass the NY HEAT Act. Their inaction was unconscionable and cowardly. It will reverberate across our region as resources continue to be siphoned away from community-led climate solutions to instead line the pockets of gas utility executives and shareholders. This has got to stop, and we must fight on. PUSH Buffalo is determined to build the power we need as a movement to win a just transition to a healthy, renewable energy future for all New Yorkers.”
Roger Downs, Conservation Director for the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, said, “New York cannot make the transition to healthy, cost-effective, and emissions-free buildings if we continue to facilitate and subsidize new fracked gas infrastructure over efficient heat pumps and thermal energy networks. Study after study shows that inaction is always the most expensive option for addressing the climate crisis. The Assembly cannot fail New Yorkers again by refusing to end fossil fuel entitlements in our public service law. Speaker Carl Heastie should bring the Assembly back to Albany and finish the job in 2024 by passing the NY HEAT Act.”
Betta Broad, Director, Advocacy & Organizing, Association for Energy Affordability, said, “By passing the NY HEAT Act, New York would have become the first state to begin a strategic downsizing of the gas distribution system, enabling an equitable transition off fossil gas in our building sector. It is an enormous missed opportunity and failure of leadership that once again the legislative session ended without amending antiquated public service laws or enacting real affordability protections. We will continue working with our coalition partners to ensure that NY HEAT passes in the near future so we can finally begin shifting ratepayer-funded investments from outdated, climate-warming, air-polluting gas infrastructure to weatherization, high efficiency heat pumps, and induction stoves, wherever possible.”
“… our representatives’ shameful inaction on climate catastrophe …”
Niki Cross, Staff Attorney at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, said, “The New Yorkers already facing the worst consequences of our representatives’ shameful inaction on climate catastrophe are once again abandoned for the sake of fossil fuel corporations’ heinous wealth. The people have given a clear demand for rapid climate action through the passage of bills like NY HEAT, in line with the minimum mandates of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.”
Elijah Conlin, Director of Zero Hour New York State, said, “With the climate crisis already underway, the need to make a healthy change that takes into account everyone in New York State, rather than only the wealthy, has never been more apparent. The NY HEAT Act would have been a crucial first step in ensuring that the Green Revolution can be for all. The Climate Crisis has been an issue passed onto the next generation for far too long. We are out of time, and we need to act NOW, or we won’t have any more future generations to pass the burden onto!”
“… the Governor and Speaker have taken the side of the fossil fuel industry …”
Peter Bardaglio, coordinator of the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative, said, “It’s hard not to be cynical watching Governor Hochul and Speaker Heastie play with the lives of New Yorkers. The climate crisis is upon us, and it demands a response proportional to its catastrophic effects. By refusing to back the NY HEAT Act, in contrast to its passage in the Senate, the Governor and Speaker have taken the side of the fossil fuel industry, which has misled the public about the harmful effects of pouring carbon and methane into the atmosphere. The NY HEAT Act provides a sensible way to accelerate the energy transition, meet the requirements of the 2019 climate law, and help disadvantaged communities across the state. This is more than a missed opportunity; it’s an act of reckless neglect in favor of record corporate profits that will set back the climate effort in New York by years.”
Ben Elkind, Lead Organizer of the New York Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC-NY), said, “Jewish tradition teaches that “you are not required to finish your work, yet neither are you permitted to desist from it” (Pirkei Avot). The work of addressing climate change may not be finished in our lifetimes and will not be tackled by New Yorkers alone, but it cannot be completed unless New York’s political leaders act year in and year out to reduce our emissions. The Reform Jewish Movement in New York is deeply disappointed by the failure of New York’s legislature to do so this session and, specifically, to enact the NY HEAT Act. We call on the Assembly to pass the NY HEAT Act next session.”
“Our state has still yet to fulfill the promise of the CLCPA …”
Daniel Atonna, Political Coordinator at For the Many, said, “Governor Hochul and Assembly leadership failed New Yorkers. It’s clear that fossil fuel companies and private utilities are allowed to run the show in Albany. The climate crisis is accelerating every day. We cannot afford another legislative session without significant progress on our renewable energy mandates. Hochul and Speaker Heastie must pass the NY HEAT Act and so much more.”
Beacon Climate Action Now (BCAN) is extremely disappointed in the NY State legislature for its failure to meet the moment and pass the NY HEAT Act. We did our work as constituents: we educated the public about this important legislation, met with legislators, traveled to Albany to lobby for the bill, and made hundreds of calls to our representatives. But our legislators did not do their job—they let a bill that would help us reach the state’s climate goals die, and the working families of our membership directly affected by this failure will continue to pay the price of high utility bills. While we are disappointed, we are not discouraged. We will continue to fight for NY HEAT because we know it is crucial to making a just transition off fossil fuels.
“… there will be no plan to transition communities across the state …”
Ruth Foster, Co-Chair of the Sheridan Hollow Alliance for Renewable Energy (SHARE), said, “The Sheridan Hollow Alliance for Renewable Energy (SHARE) has been working for years to shut down a polluting power plant in the neighborhood next to the Capitol in Albany. Without the NY HEAT Act, there will be no plan to transition communities across the state to clean renewable power. The climate crisis and New York’s climate law demand that we move quickly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Assembly and Governor Hochul must take immediate action to meet our climate goals, starting with passing the NY HEAT Act.
Ryan Madden, Climate & Energy Campaigns Director, Long Island Progressive Coalition, said, “The failure to pass NY HEAT is a failure of leadership in the NYS Assembly, with grave consequences for burdened ratepayers on Long Island. Instead of saving over $150 per month, communities now face National Grid rate hikes without any protection. This should be a top priority the next time the legislature convenes. It’s inexcusable to further delay both the implementation of our climate law and needed utility relief for struggling constituents.”
Vanessa Fajans-Turner, Executive Director for Environmental Advocates NY, said, “Passing the NY HEAT Act is essential for meeting our climate goals and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. At a time when affordability is critical for families, this bill is a no-brainer. It empowers New York to align utilities with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, promoting cleaner air and protecting public health. It’s a vital step for a sustainable future, ensuring affordable energy for all New Yorkers, especially low-to-moderate income households. The legislature must prioritize clean energy and lower utility bills now.”
Photo credit: HWM.
Renewable Heat Now has criticized the New York State Assembly for failing to pass the New York Home Energy Affordable Transition (NY HEAT) Act, which would have reformed utility regulations to support cleaner and more affordable heating options in line with state climate goals. The bill, if passed, would have capped household utility bills at 6% of income, provided energy efficiency and renewable energy credits, and offered discounts to those struggling with energy costs. The Assembly’s inaction comes amid rising utility rates and growing climate concerns, drawing sharp rebukes from various environmental groups and activists. They argue that the failure to pass the bill prioritizes fossil fuel interests over public health and economic relief. Advocates vow to continue pushing for the legislation to ensure a sustainable and affordable energy future for New Yorkers.