Andrew Cuomo Faces A Big Test On Climate Change. He’s Already Failed Twice.

On Friday, Cynthia Nixon, the activist and actor whose progressive primary challenge to Cuomo’s bid for a third term is garnering surging support, unveiled one of the most ambitious climate platforms in the nation, calling for 100 percent renewable energy, a ban on all new fossil fuel infrastructure and penalties for polluters.
And on Monday, 19 buses carrying more than 1,500 activists from across the state converged on the state capital to protest Cuomo’s failure to do more about climate change in his eight years in office, and make demands that looked identical to Nixon’s platform.
In 2015, Al Gore joined the governor as he announced plans to cut the state’s greenhouse gases emissions 40 percent by 2030.
He has no plan to get the state to 100 percent renewable electricity, and has offered little to protect low-income communities and neighborhoods of color that suffer most from the impacts of climate change.
Cuomo also signed an executive order last week restoring voting rights to felons on parole and voiced support for legalizing recreational marijuana, a policy Nixon made a platform issue in her campaign.
For the third time in as many years, the state assembly is slated to vote this week on the latest version of the New York State Climate and Community Protection Act, known as the CCPA.
New York is among the most progressive states in the country on climate change according to polling data.
Eighty-six percent of New Yorkers backed funding research into renewable energy, 81 percent supported regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant, and 79 percent called for strict emission limits on coal-fired power plants.
Seventy-one percent of New Yorkers support expanding renewable energy generation even if it raises electricity prices, compared to 61 percent nationwide, according to Cooperative Congressional Election Study’s 2016 survey results analyzed for HuffPost by Data for Progress, a left-leaning think tank.
The firm made more than $94,000 in donations to Cuomo’s campaign, plus another $50,000 to the state Democratic Committee in 2013.