Cuomo Pledges a Carbon-Free New York via “Green New Deal”

With a nod toward his predecessor as governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and a snub for the current resident of the White House, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has pledged to pursue a “Green New Deal” during 2019 – with the goal of generating all of the state’s electricity without fossil fuels by 2040 and ultimately erasing the state’s entire carbon footprint. 

“Extreme weather is a reality,” Cuomo said in remarks to the New York Bar Association, as reported by Crain’s. “It is obvious across the globe. It is obvious to everyone with a television set.” With one glaring exception: that devotee of Fox TV news, Donald Trump. 

A longtime talking point of Green Party candidates, the Green New Deal has enjoyed a renaissance since Bronx Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took it up last month. Cuomo was vague on precisely how the state would offset its electricity sector's carbon emissions and ultimately all greenhouse-gas emissions, but he has promoted the development of offshore wind power, electric vehicles and the modernization of the transmission grid in his first two terms. 

Left-wing climate activist group 350.org greeted Cuomo’s announcement with a mixed review. "While Governor Cuomo's words of support for climate action are welcome, empty rhetoric and lip service are as dangerous as inaction," said national organizer Betámia Coronel in a press release. “If he’s serious about a Green New Deal for New York, Cuomo will take concrete action now to stop all fossil fuel projects, including fracked gas pipelines like the proposed Williams Pipeline and dirty power plants wreaking havoc on our communities. Passing the Climate and Communities Protection Act and investing in communities on the frontlines of climate change would make a Green New Deal for New York a reality. From hard-won solar co-ops to fossil fuel divestment and reinvestment in good, union jobs, the solutions toward a 100 economy renewable economy already exist.”