New York Interfaith Power & Light

Opportunities for citizen lobbying at the state level have been disappearing these past eighteen months. Our legislators are willing to meet with us, both in person and on Zoom. They are not the issue. The issue for climate activists is that the Fossil Fuel Industry has discovered a significant weakness in the State Government and has shifted many of its lobby resources to exploit this unguarded terrain.

When the legislature passes an environmental bill and the governor signs it into law, the law is sent to the NYS agency for the next step. For the CLCPA, a commission was formed by the governor to direct the regulatory process. In these steps, the law is transformed into a series of policies and regulations that are concrete and enforceable. Normally, the civil servants at the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) go about the business of drafting regulations with a mundane regularity that exemplifies the bureaucratic process. Nothing is normal anymore.

The regulatory process at the State level has become a battleground. The governor chooses her directors of the agencies like her predecessors before her, but she also stays fully engaged in the regulations writing process. The governor has taken control of the regulatory process from the civil servants with expertise and is dictating what these regulations will do.

Governor Hochul, unwilling to release any regulations contrary to the wishes of the Fossil Fuel industry, has first used the tactic of delaying the release of the regulations. She was taken to court by environmental organizations and lost. The court ordered her to meet the deadlines and release the regulations.

Her next tactic has been to release some/a few/as few as possible regulations for review. This slow trickle in no manner satisfies the court order. However, we must go back to court and argue the case again to force her cooperation. We must demonstrate to the court her attempt to subvert the court order.

All of this frustrating development is beyond the typical lobby process of volunteer organizations and citizen lobbyists. Having approached Senator Harckham’s (chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee) office on behalf of a lake community in his district, his staff was limited in what they could do to help. The roadblock was a regulatory agency acting in its most conservative and defensive manner. The most the legislative staff could do was facilitate a meeting with agency staff.

The Fossil Fuel Industry has found a way to subvert our voices and our concerns by exerting undue influence over the regulatory writing process. The industry has the blessing of the governor to do so. Pushing back on the corruption of regulation writing is a highly technical process that requires expertise in law, climate science, and environmental engineering. Most organizations do not have such experts on staff. These are not volunteer type positions.

The most effective response is to attack Governor Hochul’s responses by making them public and embarrassing her. This approach of advocacy means showing up to events and protesting her. At one point in 2018, NYRenews staff and volunteers rented canoes and went out on the Peconic Bay to protest Governor Cuomo with banners in front of a house where he was holding a campaign fundraiser. This “in your face” protest is probably the best use of our resources.

Nonetheless, most of these aggressive tactics are outside many people’s comfort zone. A full tank of chutzpah is most helpful. In a coalition retreat a few years ago, we determined that the under-32 activists favored these aggressive tactics while the over-65 activists preferred lobbying, with some exceptions.

There will be a few bills to stand behind this coming legislative session, but the battle royale will be wresting the regulatory process out of the governor’s office and back onto the civil servants’ desks.

In 2025, Governor Hochul proved herself to be created in the same political mold as her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo. Governor Cuomo would deliberately let legislation passed by the NYS legislature languish on his desk until the last minute, especially climate related bills. Both governors were comfortable that a veto override was not possible, because the threshold could not be met. No Republican has voted for a climate bill in many years. Instead, incremental environmental bills would get the governor’s signature and be promoted as proof of the governor’s commitment to addressing climate change.

Only in a time of concentrated lobby and public pressure have the big climate bills passed in New York State. The last big bill that was signed into law was in 2019 (The CLCPA – The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act), under Cuomo. Still, the bill passed only because they jettisoned the payment mechanism. The CLCPA was Cuomo’s last hurrah and since then, Hochul has produced a thin list of passed climate legislation. The Climate Can’t Wait coalition has released its score card on Governor Hochul and awarded her an “F” for her record in 2025. You can read the report card here.

In the political dynamism of 2025 combined with the governor’s deliberate inaction, the opponents of climate change legislation saw a terrific opportunity. Last year, the Fossil Fuel Industry in NYS spent $150 million lobbying against climate change legislation. Much of that expenditure was targeted at Governor Hochul. One of her responses to their successful lobbying has been to delay the release of the proposed regulations required by law as written in the CLCPA.

Governor Hochul also approved a gas pipeline through Jamaica Bay this past year that had been denied three times. We lost that battle and many of us did not see it coming.

Climate organizations took Governor Hochul to court over her failure to release the required regulations dictated in the 2019 CLCPA law. The court agreed that she had failed to produce the regulations as required by law. We are still waiting.

Her probable Republican opponent in the governor’s race next year is not climate friendly. As the County Executive for Nassau County on Long Island, he has dismantled local climate change initiatives and discouraged participation in environmental activities. He also receives poor marks from the League of Conservation Voters.

Governor Hochul’s inaction is the most pressing obstacle we face at the state level. I do not pretend to understand the calculus of her decision making, but our health and our future will be affected by the decisions she has already made.

On September 29^th, an unusually heavy deluge struck New York City with many inches of rain. I was driving north on the Bronx River Parkway, a narrow thread of a throughway under significant construction and thick with traffic. I was traveling in the middle lane nose to tail ahead and behind me. As I approached an underpass, the traffic suddenly stopped, as the puddle underneath grew in size and depth as the Bronx River backed up and poured into the underpass. Five minutes later, I abandoned my car after the water rose in the car up to the bottom of my seat. My car was in a video posted in the New York Times. You may have seen the grey roof of the car, at least the last inch or two of it in the bottom left corner of the screen.

I joke that I have never made the New York Times, but my car has. The levity serves as a slight balm for the struggle to wade through the filthy flood water to the safety of the ramp, and the rest of the journey home. A month later, most of the disaster is resolved. While counting my blessings, the more important task is a backward look at the mechanisms or lack of mechanisms in place addressing climate change.

The car insurance company was swift, accurate and fair in their recompense. The tow truck driver was sympathetic and helpful with his blunt answers. In contrast, the City of New York was overwhelmed, ill-prepared, and hiding the fact that the flooding issue at this underpass is a long, ongoing problem that has never been addressed. The private companies are already updating their processes and responding with the ease of fresh experience. Government, however, is far behind, mired in the “talking phase” at the beginning before the beginning of any solution process.

Why is our government so slow to respond? Government is typically reactionary, only responding after the fact. Funding is always a contentious issue because the pot of available funds is always too small to address the needs as they are understood today. Even so, the crux of this lack of government response is the long, ongoing meddling by the fossil fuel industry at every level of government.

The approach of the fossil fuel industry is to kill any legislation and all regulation that promotes a response to climate change. Their approach is still to deny climate change. If climate change does not exist, then there is no reason for government to fund responses to the escalating crisis. As former governor Mike Huckabee said in an abrupt response to a question on the presence of climate change, “Eh, it will be gone in another year or so.”

The government response to climate change is far, far behind the needs of the day. The number of weather-related disasters per year is rising and the cost of each disaster is also escalating. Even if your house or car was not directly affected this past year, the growth in the costs of repair and replacement is causing your insurance rates to rise, and your taxes as well. Yet, the year 2023 has demonstrated we can take back both the narrative and the power to compel a better government response.

New York State has demonstrated that the fossil fuel industry push to defeat climate legislation and regulation can be stopped. Citizen action is as powerful or even more powerful than the paid lobbyists and campaign donations when such actions are applied. We have pressured legislators to vote for bills and mandates to address the changing climate, and many responded. We have thwarted attempts to remove the regulatory guardrails at city, county, and state levels of government. Our lobby visits, protests, and rallies worked.

Climate change is relentless, and it is speeding up; losing my car in a freak storm is ample proof. We are making a difference and defeating the greed of the old energy economy as the weather alarms clamor louder. Let us finish the task we set out to do, to save the Creation from the ravages of greed and unrelenting development.

Now we are confident: the goal is obtainable.

My congregation was one of 175 synagogues that received a bomb threat this past weekend. No bomb was found and we’re fine. First, I would ask you to check in with affiliating synagogues in your area; let them know you care. Second, all of this spreading Jew hatred is expensive and is being funded by someone(s), dark money akin to what we face as climate activists. The louder you protest and the harder you fight for climate change legislation at every level of government, the more you push back against these same authoritarian thrusts that seek to divide the nation. Your work to save the creation by organizing has more goodly consequences than you may realize. From fear, to faith, to fighting for justice!

The White House has released an explanation and update for non-profits who apply for reimbursement for energy upgrades to their facilities. As an initiative in the Inflation Reduction Act, congregations can apply for direct payment up to 30% of cost for upgrades instead of tax credits for which they are not eligible.

Click this link: https://www.whitehouse.gov/cleanenergy/directpay/?utm_source=www.cleanenergy.gov#other

The New York State budget was released late last night and now we know what we need to ask our legislators next week. Join NYIPL and the NY Renews coalition for our post-budget Lobby asks. You do not need to speak; we do need you to show up. Every visit already has a lobby lead assigned to guide the group.

Rabbi Jacob will be presenting at Chautauqua Institute this summer during Infrastructure Week. He will be delivering a lecture followed by Q&A on our religious approach to addressing climate change. His presentation is scheduled for July 24, 2023 at 2:00pm in the Hall of Philosophy. For further information go to: https://www.chq.org/