by Dr. Nancy Bermon
Tracking daily air quality indicators has become a necessary obsession of mine, dictating my activity level. Since developing a covid-related heart condition more than three years ago, poor air quality means I stay indoors, close windows and turn air purifiers up high. It also makes me particularly attuned to the climate-related policy changes at both the federal and state level.
That’s the reason I’m astonished that Governor Hochul watered down significant portions of New York’s 2019 landmark climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), as part of the annual budget process this year. It’s a dangerous decision that will make the cost of living more unaffordable and will further imperil the health of New Yorkers, including me.
The CLCPA sets legally binding targets to reduce emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 85% by 2050. New York is already dramatically behind on its emissions reductions deadlines. So much so that environmental groups sued the state and the judge ordered Governor Hochul to comply with the law. Instead, Governor Hochul is appealing the court decision and trying to weaken the law through the NYS budget process.
As a family physician serving low-income NYC neighborhoods for four decades, I had a front row seat to the impact of worsening pollution, heat and cold extremes on human health. It’s well documented that Black and brown low-income communities host both high pollution levels and high rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases. That’s why thirty-five percent of the CLCPA benefits are directed toward these communities.
If implemented, Governor Hochul’s delayed climate action timeline will increase both poor health and medical costs, especially for those most vulnerable and least able to afford them. Rather than making energy costs more affordable, energy use and costs will rise exponentially with extreme heat, cold, storms and air quality, as will the cost of missed days from work and school.
On March 26, 2026 NY Renews released a memo showing that Governor Hochul’s proposal to delay implementation of the climate law would result in New Yorkers losing up to $18 billion in energy bill credits or rebates, a total of 150,000 jobs, and $15 to $60 billion in revenue for local communities, while leading to 5,000 premature deaths and 4,000 asthma hospitalizations over the next five years. On the same date of that analysis a study published in Nature Communications demonstrated that non-survivable conditions are already occurring during present-day heat events, especially for older people.
The future is here now. Action cannot wait.
President Trump’s war on Iran is showcasing our dependence on noxious fossil fuels, the extremes to which we’ll go to extract them, and further raising gas and food prices. Yet the Trump administration continues introducing roadblocks to wind and solar, dismantling federal climate legislation, removing environmental protections and weakening federal agencies like FEMA that are designed to help Americans in the wake of climate disasters. State-level climate action like the CLCPA has become more essential.
It is incumbent upon Governor Hochul to step up to this urgent challenge and lead New York to join the growing international consensus on climate action. It’s time for our state to move rapidly toward renewable energy by executing on the CLCPA.
If New York is to truly be a beacon of light against the darkness of the White House’s anti-health, anti-safety, anti-equity and anti-justice storm, Governor Hochul must change course and champion the CLCPA. The costs of not doing so are not only unaffordable; they are existential.
dr. nancy bermon
Dr. Nancy Bermon is a Dayenu activist and a retired family physician in New York, New York.