We call on the NYS legislature and Governor Cuomo to identify and eliminate all nonessential fossil fuel subsidies. We commend the recent passage of S2649C and call for the passage of its Assembly counterpart, A257C. This act requires the governor to publicly disclose all fossil fuel tax expenditures and installs a sunset date five years from passage for these subsidies, except on a case-by-case basis for those the state legislature deems essential. Properly accounting for how much these expenditures cost our State and phasing out nonessential subsidies is both critical to the financial health of our state and indispensable in the fight against climate change.

In the middle of an unprecedented fiscal shortfall, unnecessary subsidies are harmful to the people of New York State. While some subsidies are necessary to the health of the New York economy, subsidizing industries that damage our future and our climate is fiscally and morally irresponsible. When draconian cuts are being made to essential public services such as Medicaid and education, spending more than 1.5 billion dollars every year on the fossil fuel industry is an outrageous and unconscionable waste of money. That money could be better used to help cover the budget shortfalls New York State is experiencing in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Spending hard-earned tax dollars on these unnecessary subsidies will cause people to miss out on the basic services that they rely on every day.

Ending nonessential subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, the main driver of the climate crisis, is an important step towards combating climate change. But in order to eliminate fossil fuel tax expenditures, we must first understand the source and magnitude of each expenditure. A257C requires the Governor to identify all fossil fuel related tax expenditures and their effects on New York in his annual tax expenditure report provided to the legislature. This bill will improve the transparency of fossil fuel subsidies and provide us with the information necessary to eliminate harmful expenditures. We call on the Assembly Government Operations Committee to vote in favor of the bill and Speaker Heastie to bring it to the floor for a vote.

With the passage of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act in 2019, New York established ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and committed itself to a transition to renewable energy. Putting tax dollars into an industry without a future is poor policy, a waste of public money, and contradictory to the goals of the CLCPA. It’s time to review these subsidies and ensure that the industry isn’t getting free money from New York taxpayers. We hope that the State Assembly will recognize the necessity of reviewing where our tax dollars go and ensuring that they are well spent. Passing A257C and ending unnecessary fossil fuel related tax expenditures is both a moral and financial imperative for every resident of New York State.