Tell lawmakers: New Yorkers need a safe environment and action against fossil fuels

Right now, state lawmakers have the opportunity to pass a comprehensive budget that secures necessary climate investments, including:

Reducing New York’s dependence on fossil fuels and ending tax breaks for this planet-warming industry
Critical investments to ensure all New Yorkers have clean and safe air and drinking water
Protecting New Yorkers from dangerous toxins linked to serious health concerns like PFAS and lead

Send a letter to your state legislators demanding an ambitious agenda to address New York’s environmental and climate crises!

A woman resting in the shade at Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York City, the Manhattan skyline visible across the river.

Anya Che

Right now, state lawmakers have the opportunity to pass a comprehensive budget that secures necessary climate investments, including:

Reducing New York’s dependence on fossil fuels and ending tax breaks for this planet-warming industry
Critical investments to ensure all New Yorkers have clean and safe air and drinking water
Protecting New Yorkers from dangerous toxins linked to serious health concerns like PFAS and lead

CTA

Your Message

Subject New Yorkers need an ambitious climate agenda in the budget

Dear New York Lawmaker:

Message Body

Last month, Governor Hochul made commitments in her 2024 State of the State address to support an affordable, managed transition off dirty fossil fuels in buildings and help our state achieve the goals laid out in the Climate Act. This action is critical and we can’t stop there.

As you’re preparing to determine the state budget, I’m writing as a New York resident to urge you to prioritize a strong agenda addressing the climate crisis and environmental concerns affecting all New Yorkers.

We must reduce New York’s dependence on fossil fuels and stop tax breaks for this planet-warming industry; make critical investments to ensure clean and safe air and drinking water; and protect New Yorkers from dangerous toxins, like PFAS and lead, linked to serious health concerns.

This can be done by ensuring the following are included in the budget:

-NY HEAT (S2016B), which will not only end a rule that allows buildings within 100 feet of an existing gas line to be connected to that line at no cost (saving New York ratepayers $200 million a year), but also implements a state goal making sure low- and middle-income households don’t spend more than 6% of their income on energy bills.

-Stop Climate Polluters’ Handouts, which will send $330 million a year of the most outrageous tax breaks afforded to the oil and gas companies that are warming our planet.

-$400 million for the Environmental Protection Fund to invest in projects that reduce pollution, protect drinking water, clean the air, conserve land, and create public parks.

-$600 million for the Clean Water Infrastructure Act (CWIA), including $100 million for the replacement of lead service lines.

-Increased funding to ensure local municipalities and water systems that serve at-risk communities can test for and filter out PFAS and other contaminants in their drinking water.

-$300,000 for the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) budget so it can implement and enforce recent laws phasing out the use of PFAS and other toxic chemicals.

The climate and environmental crises New Yorkers face are imminent and must be addressed without delay. Thank you for your consideration.

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