New York lawmakers must shield state’s climate law from fossil-fuel attacks | Opinion
“We won’t solve the climate crisis unless we solve the misinformation crisis.”
The epic PBS docuseries "The Power of Big Oil" on the fossil-fuel industry’s long and ongoing campaign to fight climate action opens with this stark warning from Rep. Ro Khanna. New York’s lawmakers would be remiss to ignore Khanna’s warning as the state embarks upon the complex task of implementing its climate law under extraordinary but predictable attacks by the oil and gas industry’s lobbying and disinformation machine.
First and foremost, the state’s energy agency, NYSERDA, must initiate an earnest effort to inform and engage the public about the benefits of the state’s climate action plan — something that the plan itself explicitly calls for — to address the information void that the fossil-fuel industry is all too happy to fill with its distorted narrative.
Our leaders must recognize that the problem is only exacerbated by acquiescence to special interests, such as Gov. Kathy Hochul’s omission this year of a key provision from her last year’s executive budget proposal — repealing an outdated law that drives up gas customers’ rates to fund free meters and hookups for new customers. Not surprisingly, her proposal for zero-emissions new construction met with intense and successful lobbying to delay its implementation.
Legislative offices opening their doors to fossil-fuel lobbyists not only risk undermining the state’s climate goals, but also leave themselves vulnerable to manipulation by the industry. Last year, gas utilities managed to sell an entirely untenable home-heating plan based on hydrogen and so-called renewable natural gas to the then-chair of the Assembly Energy Committee, and National Grid ballyhooed his quote expressing excitement over the fundamentally flawed scheme later rejected by the state’s Climate Action Council. The office of the new Energy Chair, Assemblywoman Didi Barrett, has been refreshingly receptive to factual information from experts. Already a longtime environmental champion, she has an opportunity to cement her legacy as a knowledgeable and compassionate leader who cares about future generations.
The fossil-fuel industry deftly complements its inside lobbying with an outside game of intimidating legislators by directing propaganda at their constituents. Front groups like Smarter NY Energy funded by the hopelessly price-uncompetitive heating oil and propane industries and New Yorkers for Affordable Energy sponsored by the gas industry and the notorious American Petroleum Institute serve as disinformation disseminating hubs, along with some gas utilities. They use online ads and robocalls to startle people with prospects of freezing in winter storms or having to spend inordinate amounts for clean electric appliances at the end of the lives of their polluting counterparts. The campaign then proceeds to lure its targets into contacting their legislators to oppose modern, cost-effective all-electric new construction.
The PR firm behind SNYE boasts of the effectiveness of its campaign with data-backed claims of “disproportionate impact for a little organization” and “generating sufficient grief.” Similarly, NYAE doesn’t shy away from touting its success in beating back building-decarbonization legislation last year, even claiming that it took just three robocalls to get a certain assembly member to waive the white flag.
Recent research at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law has concluded that courts would accept defendants’ acknowledgement of the efficacy of their campaigns as evidence for damages caused by disinformation. Attorney General Letitia James’ office should, for instance, be able to associate the aforementioned disinformation activities with a measurable impact on childhood asthma from a delay in zero-emissions new construction. The Legislature, too, should conduct an investigative hearing into rampant disinformation campaigns to undermine the state’s climate law.
Before the last legislative session, SNYE’s PR firm told propane dealers that to muster the necessary political opposition, they needed to attract moderate democrats in places such as Westchester County, among others. This year, they are nowhere to be found in Westchester after they were exposed, and the county’s entire Democratic Assembly delegation unanimously cosponsored the emissions-free new construction bill that the industry is targeting.
However, in some other parts of the state, the online ads and robocalls have returned with a campaign similar to last year’s even as the home-electrification incentives of the Inflation Reduction Act have rendered their already outlandish claims even more ludicrous. The beleaguered legislators can follow the example of their Westchester colleagues to get the fossil-fuel bullies off their backs. Hopefully, the robocalling gasbags gloating over hamstringing the members of Speaker Carl Heastie’s conference would be sent a clear message that bringing their one-trick pony back for a second season is just as good as flogging a dead horse.
Anshul Gupta is a steering committee member of the New York state chapters coalition of The Climate Reality Project, an international organization founded and led by former Vice President Al Gore.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: New York state climate law fossil-fuel attacks
