Flip the Ballot and Flip the Script
by Sonam VelaniELECTION SEASON IS IN FULL SWING!!! If you haven’t voted yet, open this note on your iphone and read it on the way to your local polling place → find out where to go at vote.nyc.
On the ballot: your future!
The Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Act is on the back side of the ballot (reminder to turn it over as there are many more bubbles to fill!). The $4.2 billion initiative is the largest environmental protection investment in New York state’s history! The program would help us modernize our infrastructure - improving our water systems, investing in place-based neighborhood resiliency programs, improving public health, and mitigating our long term emissions. By definition, this is exactly what climate adaptation and mitigation should look like, protecting people and the planet.
Read the full rundown of the Clean Water and Jobs Act legislative briefing. Source: New Yorkers for Clean Water and Jobs
New York State has significant goals to reduce our fossil fuels per the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Yet, even though it's the most ambitious in the country, we’ve got a ways to go. This bond act will help us get there. Here’s a short list of all that’s at stake:
$650 million to clean our air with investments in new parks, street trees, and land conservation across the state to absorb pollution and reduce urban heat.
$650 million to improve our water quality, addressing everything from lead service lines to harmful algal blooms that threaten our drinking water.
$1.5 billion to reduce emissions, with funding to retrofit older buildings to use renewable energy for boilers and heating systems, electrify our school buses, and more.
$1.1 billion for flood risk reduction, finally spending money on preventing disasters rather than waiting for FEMA dollars for years on end after the fact.
Not only will 35% of the money be spent in disadvantaged communities that bear the brunt of environmental harms, the state would also receive significant matching sums from the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.
With all these upgrades, there will be over 100,000 new jobs across the state to get the wheels rolling! As we often say, every job is a climate job and there’s no better time to get on the bandwagon! Bonus points: it comes with a special rendition of the electric slide for our electric buses from our NY Climate Tech members Ben Furnas and Meisha Porter!
So get out there → flip the ballot, flip the script, and vote!
by Sonam Velani