Governor Hochul’s State of the State made clear that New York recognizes the urgency of tackling affordability while continuing to invest in the environmental protections and infrastructure that is critical to the health of New Yorkers.
We were especially encouraged to hear the Governor recognize that clean energy is the path forward and that affordability, resilience, and climate action go hand-in-hand. As she develops her Executive Budget, there is a big opportunity to build on this agenda for the benefit of all New Yorkers.
Investing in Clean Water and Climate Resilience
One of the most significant announcements in the State of the State was the Governor’s historic $3.75 billion investment in water infrastructure. This funding will help communities across New York modernize aging water systems while, critically, keeping water bills affordable for families. Clean water is our most precious resource, and this investment – a 50% increase from the $500M that has been invested annually since she took office – represents a major step forward.
The Governor also proposed a $425 million Environmental Protection Fund, continuing New York’s strong commitment to land conservation, clean water, climate mitigation, and community resilience. Within that commitment, the State of the State included several resiliency measures to help protect communities from flooding and extreme weather.
These include advancing FloodSafe NY to help understand and manage flood risks, a new round of the Green Resiliency grants to help municipalities replace impermeable surfaces with permeable landscapes, trees, and green infrastructure where rain falls; and a new grants for coastal communities to prepare for storm surges and sea level rise. We were also pleased to see expanded funding for the CLean, Green Schools program which helps combat extreme heat in schoolyards and ensures students can learn in a comfortable environment.
We applaud these measures because resilience is not optional, it is essential to protecting New Yorkers from the impacts of climate change.
Centering Energy Affordability
NYLCV welcomed several of the governor’s proposals that focused on lowering energy costs for households, including an additional $50 million for the Empower+ program, which helps low- and moderate-income New Yorkers reduce energy use and lower utility bills through efficiency and electrification upgrades. She also called for streamlining the planning and administration of existing energy assistance programs to ensure eligible families can access the help they need, while proposing investments in smart technologies like advanced thermostats with demand response that will save New Yorkers energy and money while supporting grid reliability.
The Governor included strong proposals to alter State Building Aid rules so it’s easier for school districts to access funding for renewable energy projects, including rooftop and ground-based solar, as well as a new sales tax exemption for electricity being sold at commercial EV charging stations which would bring us one step closer to cleaner transportation.
Big Energy Users Must Pay Their Fair Share
Governor Hochul addressed the growing energy demands of data centers, announcing that they will be required to pay their fair share for the power they use and ultimately generate their own clean energy. NYLCV strongly supports this policy and hopes the final budget includes clear language requiring data centers to add 100 percent renewable energy to the grid to power their operations. As electricity demand grows, it is critical that our largest users contribute to New York’s clean energy goals.
Streamlining Without Sacrificing Protections
The Governor rightly acknowledged that environmental review and permitting can be streamlined without compromising environmental protections. Proposals to amend the State Environmental Quality Review Act, if done right, can help move critical projects forward while preserving environmental safeguards.
We look forward to reviewing the details of this proposal in the Executive Budget to ensure that New York can build more clean energy and more dense, transit-oriented development without weakening environmental protections.
But the governor doesn’t need to stop there. That same common-sense approach should also be applied to clean energy deployment, including solar and energy storage. Cutting unnecessary red tape saves time and money and can be the difference between a contractor finishing a job or having to pull up stakes, which is why we strongly encourage the state to advance automated solar permitting and the Accelerate Solar for Affordable Power (ASAP) Act.
Currently, permits for residential solar and energy storage systems can be subject to long timelines and byzantine permitting procedures which present a significant barrier to more widespread adoption. The automated solar permitting bill would require municipalities to adopt one of the many online portals to automate plan review and code-compliant approvals, thereby cutting red tape and ensuring that more solar gets built faster.
The ASAP Act would strengthen the State’s commitment to solar energy by raising the distributed solar target to 20 gigawatts by 2035 and reforming the interconnection process by which distributed solar projects are connected to the grid to reduce project delays and bottlenecks.
“Solar energy has been one of New York’s greatest clean energy success stories, but with federal support under threat, we must double down at the state level to keep moving forward,” said NYLCV Policy Director Pat McClellan. “The ASAP Act and automatic solar permitting are critical to that effort.”
A Win for Transit Equity
We were very pleased to see the Governor reaffirm her commitment to mass transit with a proposal to expand the Second Avenue Subway across 125th Street. This long-awaited step is a major win for transit equity in New York City and will improve access, reduce congestion, and support communities in Upper Manhattan who have long been underserved by the city’s subway system.
What We Need to See in the Executive Budget
As Governor Hochul develops her Executive Budget, there is an opportunity to build on the strong foundation she laid out in her State of the State.
We ask you to join us in urging the her to include a host of policies that complement her agenda of cutting burdensome red tape and delivering clean, affordable energy for all New Yorkers, including:
- Invest $1 billion in the Sustainable Future Fund, including $200 million for thermal energy networks, to accelerate climate mitigation and adaptation projects statewide.
- Expand access to distributed solar by enacting the ASAP Act and implementing automated solar permitting.
- Increase support for battery storage, including permitting reform and a battery storage sales tax exemption, to strengthen grid reliability and replace polluting peaker plants.
[It takes just a minute to fill out our form to tell the governor you support these measures.]
At a time when the Trump administration is rolling back federal climate protections and threatening clean energy funding, these investments would help lower energy bills, create good local jobs, and ensure New York remains a national leader on climate action.