New York’s top budget official confirmed that the governor wants to change the state’s climate law.
By Marie J. French | 02/25/2026 05:37 PM EST
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s top budget official elevated concerns about the cost of the state’s climate law that the governor once championed on Wednesday.
The governor wants to change the law to ensure New Yorkers don’t have to pay excessive costs to achieve required emissions reductions, Budget Director Blake Washington told reporters after a Citizens Budget Commission breakfast.
“The governor's not going to whistle past the graveyard,” Washington said. “She sees problems on any number of issues, but here she sees an affordability issue that's right before her eyes that must be addressed.”
His remarks were first reported by City and State.
Why it matters: The state’s 2019 climate law requires steep emissions reductions that New York is not on track to meet, including a 40 percent cut from 1990 levels by 2030. The governor has repeatedly raised concerns about the cost of those efforts and has been mulling off-ramps.
Her administration is appealing a judge’s ruling that the Department of Environmental Conservation is required to issue regulations to achieve the law’s targets. That decision is suspended because of the appeal, but Hochul has said she’d consider changes to the law.
Washington made an explicit case for addressing the issue on Wednesday.
“We have a series of legal challenges that are out there that, absent any remedy, New Yorkers are gonna see costs that they cannot bear,” he said.
Details: Washington stopped short of committing the governor to addressing the issue in the budget, while leaving the door wide open to that possibility. Hochul didn’t include potential changes to the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act in 30-day amendments to her initial budget proposal earlier this month.
“The means matter less than the ends,” Washington said of the lack of a formal public proposal. “With appropriate engagement with the policymakers that created these laws in the first place, I think that you could get to a place where reasonable people can agree that no New Yorker should be faced with thousands of dollars on new costs because of a mandate that cannot be met.”
Cost estimates: Washington also cited new cost estimates for implementing “cap and invest” regulations to achieve the climate law’s goals. Hochul once embraced this cap-and-trade style policy that would place a declining limit on emissions and auction off permits to pollute, using the revenue to invest in clean energy and provide rebates to residents.
Washington said a program to achieve the goals would add more than $1.90 to gasoline prices and raise costs for a family with oil heat and a gas vehicle by $3,000 annually.
The governor’s office did not immediately provide additional information about the source or details of these estimated costs. They’re far higher than those provided in state modeling in 2024, which did not achieve the law’s goals. They’re also higher than estimates provided by Hochul officials when they sought to weaken the law in 2023.
State and independent modeling backed by environmental groups has found most low-income households would see a net benefit after getting rebates from the program.
What’s next: Some moderate Democrats, particularly in the Assembly, are open to discussions on the climate law. But the ball is very much in Hochul’s court given her outsize power in the budget process. The budget deadline is April 1.
