The No North Brooklyn Pipeline Coalition supported and organized to pass two bills this year - the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA) and the All-Electric Building Act (AEBA). Both bills are critical if New York is to meet the emissions goals mandated by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). This morning, in the last hours of an extended legislative session, Carl E. Heastie, Speaker of the New York Assembly, harmed the people living in his district and all New Yorkers by refusing to bring #AEBA or #BPRA to a vote despite overwhelming support for passage. This failure will contribute to rising, unaffordable utility rates and poorer health outcomes in environmental justice communities across the region and specifically in the communities he claims to represent. It will make meeting mandated environmental targets of the CLCPA more difficult, if not impossible, in the coming years. The No North Brooklyn Pipeline Coalition released the following statement: “We are heartbroken, enraged, and terrified that our legislators are heading home for the summer without passing critical climate legislation. We worked tirelessly with New Yorkers across the state to support the Build Public Renewables Act and the All-Electric Building Act because we know we need to transform our energy system and we need to do it now. Delayed action is climate denial in 2022. National Grid’s North Brooklyn Pipeline and LNG expansion are the result of years of failure by New York State to make a plan to get off fracked gas and build renewables at the scale the climate crisis demands. These bills would have limited the utility’s insatiable appetite for building fracked gas infrastructure. It's clear that the fossil fuel industry still wields undue power in Albany. With a deceitful astroturfing campaign, industry front groups tanked the All-Electric Building Act and both bills were never brought to the floor, even though they had the votes to pass. Speaker Heastie and every elected official who did not actively fight for the passage of these bills chose the side of the fossil fuel industry over their constituents, continuing a legacy of environmental racism and contributing to climate catastrophe. With that in mind, we will continue to build community power by talking to our neighbors and growing the Gas Bill Strike. As the ever worsening hurricane season begins in our coastal community, our community members are withholding a portion of their gas bills to decry National Grid’s role in ongoing climate devastation. Carl Heastie and some in Albany might be afraid of National Grid, but we are not. We invite all New Yorkers to join us this summer. Our fight for climate equity and a livable future continues.” National Grid is a member of New Yorkers for Affordable Energy - an industry front group that ran misleading ads about New York’s Climate Law and the All-Electric Buildings Act.
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