First-of-its-Kind Lawsuit Filed Urging New York to Release Overdue Climate Law Regulations

Albany, NY —

Today, Citizen Action of New York, PUSH Buffalo, Sierra Club, and WE ACT for Environmental Justice, represented by Earthjustice, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic filed a lawsuit urging the Albany County Supreme Court to order the release of overdue regulations required under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). In that law, the New York State Legislature directed the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to produce regulations that reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050 from 1990 levels.

Because of climate change, New York is suffering from rising temperatures, more intense air pollution, greater incidences of negative health outcomes including infectious disease, asthma attacks, and heart disease, and more frequent and more severe extreme weather events such as storms, flooding, heat waves, and wildfires. Climate change is caused primarily by greenhouse gas emissions that occur from burning fossil fuels to generate electricity, heat homes and businesses, and power motor vehicles, as well as the greenhouse gases that leak during the extraction, transportation, and use of fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels also causes air pollution across the state, which disproportionately harms low-income New Yorkers and New Yorkers of color.

To combat climate change and reduce air pollution, the CLCPA directs DEC to develop and issue regulations that will reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution across the state. In 2023, DEC started the process of developing draft emission reduction regulations to launch a cap-and-invest program intended to reduce New York’s statewide greenhouse gas emissions to meet the CLCPA and raise revenue to invest in clean energy and climate mitigation. The state projected that these regulations would also reduce air pollution and have significant health benefits, slashing asthma incidences and emergency room visits across the state, especially in communities that are the most overburdened by pollution. In late 2023 and throughout 2024, DEC represented to the public that the draft regulations would come out in 2024 and the regulations would be finalized and in effect by 2025.

In January 2025, DEC abruptly reversed course and announced that the draft regulations would not be released this year and has not provided a date by which they will be released. Without comprehensive regulations in place, New York does not currently have a pathway to achieve the steep greenhouse gas reductions the CLCPA requires by 2030. The law required regulations to be finalized by January 1, 2024.

“This administration has a responsibility to the people of New York, whose Climate Law is worthless without funding. Six years after passing groundbreaking, nation-leading climate legislation, our leaders continue to drag their feet, leaving us dangerously behind where we need to be,” said Dawn Wells-Clyburn, Executive Director of PUSH Buffalo. “Meanwhile, climate-related crises continue to mount for New Yorkers, specifically for our most vulnerable populations. So when the DEC says the quiet part out loud — that the Reporting Program ‘does not impose requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions’ — we, the people, say: Why on earth not?”

“In the face of the current federal assault on climate and environmental protections, it is more important than ever that New York meets its statutory obligations to protect its residents from harmful greenhouse gases and air pollution,” said Roger Downs, Conservation Director of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter. “New York must demonstrate its leadership and set an example for other states by advancing critical climate protections.”

“With passage of the Climate Act in 2019, New York looked like a national leader on climate action. But three years after the Scoping Plan was finalized, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has still not drafted the emission reduction regulations required by the law — more than a year ago — to ensure the State reaches its climate mandate,” said Peggy Shepard, Co-Founder & Executive Director at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. “These regulations are one of the foundational rules for Cap and Invest, a critical tool for driving environmental progress and funding clean energy investments in low-income communities and communities of color, which are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis. We are forced to take this action to ensure that the State fulfills its duty to New Yorkers, particularly those of us who live in environmental justice communities.”

“New York’s climate law charges DEC to issue regulations that will reduce climate emissions statewide, and the state has failed to do so. These regulations are not just a technicality — they are the primary means of ensuring the state meets its climate mandates,” said Rachel Spector, Senior Attorney at Earthjustice. “We don’t have time to wait to act on climate, and that’s why our clients are going to court today.”

“As community lawyers, we fight for the priorities most important to our environmental justice community partners. That priority today is to force the State to comply with the law so that our members can finally stop breathing in dirty air from the inordinate number of polluting facilities that overburden these neighborhoods,” says Caroline Chen, Director of the Environmental Justice Program at the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. “DEC must release their emissions reduction regulations now, and start to redress the unfair health and economic harm caused by decades of biased government siting decisions.”

“New Yorkers are already feeling the devastating effects of climate change and the DEC’s failure to act is a betrayal of the communities that have been hit the hardest,” said Bob Cohen, Policy and Research Director at Citizen Action of New York. “Every day they refuse to release the climate regulations and to enforce the law means more asthma attacks, more hospital visits, and more lives disrupted. The failure of Governor Hochul and DEC to follow the clear mandates of our climate law has real consequences for New Yorkers — more storms and other severe weather, more pollution and a less livable future. The time for action is now.”

Today’s lawsuit asks the court to order DEC to issue draft regulations immediately and to declare that by failing to do so DEC has violated the climate law and the state constitutional right to clean air. Regulations that spur the shift to zero emission buildings and transportation will help New Yorkers breathe cleaner air, live healthier lives, and move away from burning fossil fuels.