***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***: May 12, 2021

Contact: Arielle Swernoff | (646) 450-5461 | arielle@nyrenews.org

Carina Daniels | (510) 847-1617 | carina@storyandreach.com |

Web: @NYRenews | www.nyrenews.org

STUDY: Climate and Community Investment Act would create 160,000 long-term jobs for New Yorkers

Corporate polluters’ scare tactics ignore CCIA’s economic benefits to New Yorkers

Albany, NY — A new study released today by NY Renews shows that investment in climate programs and infrastructure under the Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA, S4264-A/A6967) would create and sustain 160,000 jobs over a ten-year period. These jobs would reach beyond the renewable energy sector and include jobs in public transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, the care economy and schools, professional services, and pollution remediation. The jobs would be created in all regions of New York State.

NY Renews released the study, “The Climate and Community Investment Act: An Engine for Good Job Creation,” at a press conference during which they pushed back on corporate polluters’ scare tactics  and deceptive claims about the bill. Far from imposing costs on hardworking New Yorkers, the CCIA would invest billions of dollars into communities across the state, provide the majority of New Yorkers with annual tax credits of $700 to $1,200 , create hundreds of thousands of jobs, reduce pollution and increase New York’s resilience to the climate crisis, leading to healthy, thriving communities.

Under the CCIA, an emissions fee on corporate polluters would generate an additional $10-$15 billion per year in state revenue, to be spent in four categories: 30% of the funds for community- based projects such as tenant-owned solar or energy efficiency; 30% for large-scale renewable infrastructure; one-third of the funds for energy rebates for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers; and 7% for fossil-dependent workers and communities.

The CCIA includes gold-standard labor provisions such as promoting high wages, best-value contracting, apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs, and access to unions. Benefits are designed to flow in particular to people in disadvantaged and front-line communities.

Projects that could be funded under the CCIA include:

• Converting the Capitol building and Empire State Plaza to 100% renewable sources for cooling, heating and electricity, and making renewable sources widely available to the surrounding low-income communities of color, including the Sheridan Hollow and Arbor Hill neighborhoods.

• Ensuring Long Island becomes a major hub for the Regional Offshore Wind Energy Industry, as noted in this report by the Workforce Development Institute: OSW MOU – Orsted NJ and NY.

• Supporting the housing and energy priorities of the Shinnecock Nation, who are exploring energy efficiency retrofits for their building stock, community solar for all members of the tribe, and battery storage for resiliency due to increasing storms off their coast.

• Supercharging efforts such as Buffalo’s Massachusetts Avenue Project, a nonprofit urban farm located on Buffalo’s West Side providing year-round youth employment and training with job readiness and leadership skills through farming, a Mobile Market, kitchen and nutrition education, as well as food policy training and civic engagement.

A link to the full report can be found here.

Quotes

“The framework of CLCPA is the nation’s most aggressive climate change law. We now must put meat on the bone by providing a funding mechanism, addressing environmental justice and building the Care Economy in NYS. The CCIA must become law this Session!” — Senator Kevin Parker 

“We are living in a moment where the solutions are as real as the multidimensional threats to our existence. If New York is serious about Covid and Climate Change, then New York must pass the Climate and Community Investment Act. It will create over 160,000 well-paid and career-building green jobs, and move investments to operationalize community-led infrastructure plans like the Green Resilient Industrial District (GRID) for a Just Transition.” — Elizabeth Yeampierre, Executive Director of UPROSE

“The CCIA has the potential to truly transform our communities by investing billions of dollars into neighborhoods across the state — but the fossil fuel industry is trying to defend the status quo by spreading misleading information and scare tactics. The reality is that the CCIA takes money from fossil fuel companies and invests it back into communities across New York State. We should listen to grassroots leaders across the state, and not the fossil fuel companies who have poisoned our communities and want to protect their bottom lines.” — Annel Hernandez, New York City Environmental Justice Alliance 

“We need high-quality, family-sustaining jobs and deep investments in front-line communities to ensure a just recovery for New York, and passing the Climate Community Investment Act and the federal THRIVE agenda are how we get there. This report shows the huge opportunity for good, green jobs in New York if our legislature goes big with prioritizing climate action and care in rooted racial and economic justice.” — Sochie Nnaemeka, New York Working Families Party State Director

“The job numbers shown in this powerful report make it clear: the passage of the NY State Climate and Community Investment Act, together with Federal THRIVE legislation, will provide the green job growth that our communities desperately need at the state and federal levels. This is a win-win for our economy and the environment,” said Maritza Silva-Farrell, Executive Director of ALIGN. “The CCIA and THRIVE will move us a to a just transition for workers and communities.”— Maritza Silva Farrell, Executive Director of ALIGN

“This report shows the enormous opportunity we have with the CCIA to create jobs in the green economy, and the CCIA’s labor provisions ensure that those jobs will be good ones – creating family-sustaining jobs throughout the supply chain, all while making major progress toward meeting our climate and environmental goals.” — Miranda Nelson, NY Director for Jobs to Move America

“By investing in wind and solar power, electrical system upgrades, building retrofits, energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture and more, as well as the care economy, we can help lift our economy out of the hole created by the pandemic, while addressing urgent crises like climate change and racial injustice.” — Ryan Madden, Sustainability Organizer at the Long Island Progressive Coalition. 

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