14
COURIER LIFE, MARCH 25-31, 2022
BY BEN BRACHFELD
Activists and legislators
are pushing to include billions
of dollars in the soonto
be-due state budget for
urgent resiliency projects,
the likes of which could
save imperiled low-lying
areas of Brooklyn from catastrophic
climate doom.
The $15 billion in climate
funding advocates
are calling for would put
the state’s environmental
spending for the coming
fiscal year in line with the
proposed Climate and Community
Investment Act,
which would potentially
raise that sum annually by
charging polluters a fee for
each ton of carbon emitted.
The money would go toward
renewable energy development,
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public transit,
T: 9.6”W X 5.35 B: NA L: 0.5” mar gin 4c
building and infrastructure
electrification.
“I’m personally hoping
the $15 billion this year is a
trial run of how it would all
operate,” said Daniel Loud,
founder of the Bay Ridge
Environmental Group, in
an interview with Brooklyn
Paper. “People would see
these benefits and a lot of it
would be invested directly
in communities.”
Massive climate investments
would be felt particularly
saliently in southern
Brooklyn, where a massive
portion of the population
lives in low-lying coastal
nabes that have already
borne serious consequences
from climate change, and
are set to hurt even more in
the coming years.
“We have to be investing
into our environment, to
protect our environment, to
protect our neighborhoods,”
said state Sen. Andrew Gounardes,
whose South Brooklyn
constituency is facing
particular vulnerabilities
to climate change, at a Sunday
rally in Bay Ridge. “To
protect vulnerable communities
in southern Brooklyn
that were totally washed out
during Hurricane Sandy,
that were flooded anew during
Hurricane Ida, and that
are gonna continue to be
vulnerable and susceptible
to the increased effects of
climate change the longer
we delay.”
Gounardes and other
state legislators, many
from communities facing
particular peril from climate
change, are waging
an uphill battle to allocate
$15 billion of the upcoming
state budget, due April 1,
to combat climate change.
Neither Gov. Kathy Hochul’s
executive budget nor
the one-house budgets proposed
by the Assembly and
Senate allocated anywhere
close to this, but advocates
are continuing to lobby for
the funding they say is necessary
to reach the goals
of the CLCPA, which commits
the state to the goal of
100 percent renewable electric
generation by 2040, and
reducing greenhouse gas
emissions by 85 percent below
1990 levels by 2050.
The “Climate Action
Council,” which was created
in the 2019 climate
law, last year put out a
“scoping plan” of draft regulations
to meet CLCPA
goals, and is soliciting public
comment on those regulations
until June.
With $15 billion in the
upcoming budget, advocates
say the state could
fund thousands of green
jobs for projects like building
electrification and
offshore wind, dole out
billions in grants to community
Prospect Park Lake overflowed from excessive rainfall during
Hurricane Ida. File photo by Ben Brachfeld
organizations helping
facilitate a “just transition”
from fossil fuels, and
direct assistance to households
to help reduce energy
costs and output.
In Brooklyn, that money
could go toward the unsexy,
but crucial work of connecting
the proposed offshore
wind development at the
South Brooklyn Marine
Terminal to the existing energy
grid, for one. It could
also fund more projects like
Sunset Park Solar, a cooperatively
owned solar power
project helmed by the local
nonprofit UPROSE, which
aims to make solar power
affordable and accessible to
low-income New Yorkers.
Despite the high price,
advocates say that the cost
of doing nothing will be far
higher — and the cost of inaction
is incalculable.
This story has been edited
for brevity. For more,
visit BrooklynPaper.com.
A hot button issue!
Advocates call for $15B in climate funding in state budget
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