PoliticoPro: Environmental groups sue New York over climate law delay
March 31st, 2025
A new lawsuit alleges Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration is violating the state’s climate law by failing to issue regulations to cut emissions.
By: Marie J. French | 03/31/2025
ALBANY, New York — Green groups are suing in state court to force Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration to implement New York’s landmark climate law.
Four environmental groups filed a lawsuit Monday that claims the Department of Environmental Conservation is violating the climate law by failing to adopt regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The lawsuit alleges the DEC is also running afoul of the state constitutional right to clean air and a healthy environment.
“DEC’s failure to comply with its mandatory duty to regulate threatens New York’s climate targets as well as New Yorkers’ health and wellbeing,” the lawsuit states.
Why it matters: Hochul has delayed the rollout of the cap-and-trade style program she first embraced during her State of the State speech in 2023. The governor has since been more focused on the potential cost concerns and economic impacts of her signature program to abide by the state’s climate law.
State officials did not respond to POLITICO with a new timeline for the full program. DEC spokesperson Denis Slattery said the state is “continuing to develop” cap and invest and pointed to Hochul’s proposed $1 billion fund for climate action this year.
The governor’s program aims to set a declining limit on emissions and charge fuel suppliers and large emitters for pollution. Those costs would likely be passed on to consumers. Some of the money raised through the program would be used to provide relief to New York households for those costs; the rest would support clean energy and other decarbonization efforts.
Opponents of the program contend it will be too costly for consumers who don’t get rebates and businesses that may decide to invest elsewhere. The Business Council of New York State prefers a market-based mechanism but also wants policymakers to re-examine the state’s 2019 climate law.
The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, passed under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, requires the state to cut emissions 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030. But the state is not on track — only 9.4 percent had been cut as of 2022 — and even supporters of the law acknowledge that goal is likely out of reach.
But the law requires DEC to implement regulations to achieve the goal by January 2024. That’s the crux of the legal challenge, which is the latest tactic from environmental advocates since Hochul punted on releasing the regulations earlier this year.
Details: Citizen Action of New York, People United for Sustainable Housing Buffalo, Sierra Club and WE ACT for Environmental Justice are the petitioners in the lawsuit. Earthjustice, a nonprofit that provides legal services for environmental causes, is representing them. The lawsuit was filed in Albany County Supreme Court under Article 78, which governs challenges to state agency actions.
“We are forced to take this action to ensure that the State fulfills its duty to New Yorkers, particularly those of us who live in environmental justice communities,” said Peggy Shepard, co-founder and executive director at WE ACT for Environmental Justice.
The suit alleges that failing to issue regulations to cut emissions is harming the health of members of the environmental groups, citing the state’s analysis of the benefits of transitioning away from fossil fuels.
“The state must not be allowed to continue to violate the law by withholding a climate solution that it has deemed necessary to achieve the greenhouse gas reduction targets of the climate law and that it estimates will prevent many premature deaths and asthma-related emergency room visits each year,” the lawsuit states.
Timeline: Hochul’s administration officials have spent years promising the draft “cap and invest” regulations were just over the horizon.
In February 2023, then-DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos told lawmakers in written testimony that the regulatory proposal would be released “for public comment this year.” In April 2023, he told reporters it would be released “this summer,” finalized by the end of that year and a program launched in 2025.
Seggos told POLITICO in December 2023 the state was “still on track” to launch the program in 2025 with draft regulations likely completed by the “second or third quarter” of 2024.
In August 2024, a NYSERDA official said on a public webinar that spending of proceeds from “cap and invest” would “begin in the next fiscal year, which starts April 2025 and runs through March 2026.” In September 2024, another NYSERDA official said that the state would release draft regulations “in the next few months.”
The lawsuit cites similar public pronouncements as well as a private meeting in December 2024, where DEC officials told environmental groups that draft regulations would be released in January, as POLITICO previously reported.
DEC officials said the program would begin collecting revenues later in the year, according to the filing.
Hochul in her January State of the State policy book announced that instead DEC would advance reporting rules, one of a suite of regulations needed to implement “cap and invest.” The governor subsequently said more information was needed about polluters to make sure they “get it right.”
DEC released draft emissions reporting requirements for public comment last week. The proposed regulations would require fuel suppliers, large dairy farmers, fertilizer suppliers, waste haulers, power plants and other emitters to report data from 2026 starting in June 2027.
Slattery said the state reporting rules would “backstop” federal reporting regulations the Trump administration is reconsidering.
“Bringing these actions under the banner of the Clean Air Initiative prioritizes the anticipated benefits of improved air quality, investments in community resilience, and safeguarding the health of New Yorkers,” Slattery said in a statement.
The state recently scrubbed references to meeting emissions reduction targets from its cap and invest website, rebranding it the “Clean Air Initiative.”
Reactions: Environmental advocates, including the groups who filed this lawsuit, have slammed the governor since January over the delayed draft regulations. They’ve pushed for her to release the draft rules.
Fossil fuel industry representatives and other opponents of the program praised the governor’s decision and have called for her to abandon the program altogether.
“For her to delay makes perfect sense politically,” said Justin Wilcox, executive director of Upstate United, which represents upstate business and trade organizations. “It’s going to be very expensive at a time when you’re talking about affordability and it’s going to be incredibly unpopular.”
Some Assembly Democrats have also been supportive of the governor’s more measured approach to move the program forward incrementally, as their wariness over affordability concerns grows.
Hochul may be delaying the program in an attempt to build more support and political backing, suggested Lawrence Levy, a suburban politics expert at Hofstra University.
“People don’t want to pay more right now. They’re still suffering from inflation PTSD,” Levy said. “I would imagine that its the up-front costs and complexity of it that would tempt Hochul to delay as much as possible.”
Hochul has instead proposed a $1 billion fund for climate priorities as part of budget talks, and lawmakers in both the Assembly and Senate are supportive.
What’s next: The legal challenge is just one way environmental groups are pushing for more action by Hochul on climate. But the governor and Democratic lawmakers have shown reluctance over the cost of the climate law as business groups push for a re-examination of some mandates.