OPINION: Cuomo, it’s time to ‘Walk the Talk on Climate’
Photo courtesy of Cagle Cartoons
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has developed a reputation as a bold truth-teller in the fight against climate catastrophe. But later this month, a mass gathering of New Yorkers will descend on Albany to deliver a different message to Cuomo: Talk is cheap — we want real action.
I’ll be there with them. On April 23, I’m boarding a bus from Brooklyn to the state capital, where I will join a rally of New Yorkers from Long Island to Buffalo. “Cuomo: Walk the Talk on Climate” is part of a grass-roots movement reminiscent of the campaign against fracking, which called on Cuomo to oppose this dangerous process. It worked: In December 2014, the governor stood up to the oil & gas industry by declaring a ban on fracking.
Today, New York and the nation needs Cuomo’s leadership more than ever. The time for half-measures and empty speeches is over: Cuomo must move New York off fossil fuels by stopping all new fossil fuel projects, and shifting our state to 100 percent renewable energy.
The science is clear: We need to make a rapid and just transition to renewable energy or risk further climate chaos. Five years ago, Superstorm Sandy devastated Brooklyn and communities across the region, while today, Puerto Rico is still reeling from Hurricane Maria. More violent storms worsened by climate change risk even greater destruction and damage to New York, the nation and the planet.
It’s both necessary and possible to move to 100 percent renewable energy. We can power our communities and economy with clean energy technologies like solar, wind, and geothermal. We can reduce our energy consumption through efficiency measures. And we can create tens of thousands of good jobs in the process.
What’s stopping us? The political backbone to get the job done is lacking. Cuomo has talked a good talk, and put forth some modest proposals. But the governor has not exhibited the necessary consistency and courage.
Despite banning fracking here, New York is threatened by pipelines and power plants that transport and burn fracked oil and gas from other states. The Cuomo administration has supported projects that maintain our reliance on dirty fossil fuels. These include the CPV power plant in Orange County, tainted by bribes to former Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco, and the AIM pipeline in Westchester County, which runs dangerously close to the Indian Point nuclear plant. The Cuomo administration is even proposing to build a fracked gas plant in a low-income Albany neighborhood to power the state capitol. And there are plans to construct a fracked gas pipeline off Coney Island and the Rockaways.
Cuomo has the authority to stop these dangerous projects, while at the same time ramping up our state’s commitment to renewables. Right now, despite all the talk from Cuomo during the years, only about 4 percent of the power that New York uses is from solar and wind power. Cuomo’s long-term goal is to reach 50 percent renewable energy. But that is not bold leadership; Cuomo’s objective should be 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, with the policies and programs necessary to achieve this essential goal.
Members of the state legislature are already on board. Brooklyn’s own William Colton has introduced an Assembly bill to move New York off fossil fuels by 2030, along with Brad Hoylman, a state senator from Manhattan.
On April 23, Brooklyn will be well represented in Albany by Food & Water Watch, New York Communities for Change, 350Brooklyn, the Fifth Avenue Committee, Indivisible Nation BK and other organizations. We need Cuomo’s leadership in moving New York off fossil fuels, and we won’t accept anything less.
Eric Weltman is a Brooklyn-based senior organizer with Food & Water Watch.
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