Saving Our Shorelines: Gounardes pushes new Climate & Community Investment Act
On Sunday, New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes joined the Bay Ridge Environmental Group and southern Brooklyn community members for a rally in support of the Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA).
Gounardes is a co-sponsor of the CCIA, would create over 150,000 new jobs in the green energy sector, as well as require polluters to pay for the carbon they emit. Revenues from this carbon tax would be used to provide a rebate on green electricity bills for the lowest-earning 60% of New Yorkers, saving millions of households thousands of dollars each year.
Included in the CCIA are earmarked funds to strengthen southern Brooklyn’s protection against storms that are becoming stronger due to climate change. Superstorm Sandy destroyed hundreds of southern Brooklyn homes in 2012 and storms to come are likely to have even more devastating impacts, as the climate crisis causes them to increase in strength, speed, and scale. With the projected rate of sea level rise, parts of Southern Brooklyn, from Marine Park to Coney Island, are expected to be uninhabitable within the next century.