Sen. Liz Krueger urges Assembly to pass climate bill as NYC set to bake

Pointing to challenging, sizzling weather conditions this summer ahead of the season’s first heat wave, state Sen. Liz Krueger on Monday put a little out-of-season heat on her Assembly colleagues to pass a climate sustainability bill that passed in the Senate.

The legislation, which would put caps on energy fees for low- and middle- income New Yorkers and discourage the construction of new natural gas lines by forcing utilities to use their own money to build them, passed the Senate in the spring before hitting a wall in the Assembly.

Krueger’s calls came with the Assembly in recess after the legislative session ended last month. But the Manhattan Democrat suggested this summer’s extreme weather underscored the urgency of climate action.

The so-called HEAT Act, sponsored by Krueger, passed 39 to 23 in the Senate in June.

State lawmakers are not due to return to Albany until next winter. Krueger said the bill could be considered earlier in an emergency session, or alternatively folded into Gov. Hochul’s next budget.

“We are living in the beginning of a crisis that will only get worse unless we act immediately,” Krueger, who represents the Upper East Side, said in a virtual news conference. “We are so far behind. We are literally in a race for our own lives and the planet’s life.”

In recent weeks, New York has pushed through steady heat, a torrential Hudson Valley downpour that turned deadly and an awful yellow-hued sky tainted by Canadian wildfires burning some 500 miles away.

The planet is coming off its hottest June on record. New York City is forecast to have its first heat wave of the season from Thursday to Saturday, said Matthew Wunsch, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s field office in Upton, N.Y. A heat wave is defined as three straight days with temperatures of 90 degrees or higher.

It is difficult to link individual weather events to climate change, but global warming has been shown to drive an increase in extreme weather, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

On Monday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said the White House had authorized a disaster declaration unlocking funding for New York regions still recovering from the rainstorm that blew through the state two weeks ago, turning roads into rivers and killing one person.

Krueger’s renewed push also comes with New Yorkers jittery about rising energy costs. Electric bills from Con Edison, New York City’s largest utility supplier, are forecast to jump 9% next month under a plan approved by the state Public Service Commission.

The HEAT Act directs the Public Service Commission to prevent low-to-middle income residential customers from having to pay more than 6% of their incomes on electric bills.

The 6% cap was a sticking point in the Assembly, and drew concerns that the bill might discourage the conservation of energy, said Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, who sponsored the bill in her chamber.

Assembly lawmakers’ limited bandwidth posed a broader challenge, Fahy added. Protracted negotiations over the state budget delayed the passage of legislation, and forced the Assembly to come back for a lightning two-day legislative session in June after the Senate finished its work.

“The bottom line is we are very, very committed to this bill,” Fahy, an Albany Democrat, said by phone Monday. “I really do feel confident we’re going to get there.”

Hochul’s office said in a statement that the governor is “committed to reducing emissions and fighting climate change, and will review all budget requests.”

The office of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Assembly did pass one significant and contentious climate bill before adjourning last month: the Planned Offshore Wind Transmission Act, a measure that would help clear the way for an offshore wind power development 14 miles off Jones Beach.

But the HEAT Act chilled in the Assembly.

“This has been a hot, expensive, climate crisis summer,” Liz Moran, an advocate with the legal group Earthjustice, said in the news conference with Krueger. “It’s time for lawmakers to step up.”