NYC NOW - June 16, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

Early voting for the city's primary elections begins tomorrow and WNYC’s Brigid Bergin offers essential tips for prospective voters. And the MTA's public comment portal is now open for input on proposed transit fare hikes which would raise subway and bus fares to $2.90. And, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres emphasizes the urgent need to phase out fossil fuels worldwide. This call to action resonates strongly in the New York City region after recent smoky conditions prompted many to stay indoors. Although the smoke was due to wildfires, not fossil fuels, such incidents are projected to increase as the climate crisis escalates. As for addressing such a global issue on a local scale, WNYC’s Michael Hill discusses possible strategies with Liz Moran, a policy advocate with Earth Justice.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, June 16th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Early voting begins tomorrow for the city's primary elections. WNYC's Bridget Bergen has these tips before you go to the voting booth. Voting begins across four of the five boroughs at 9 a.m. There are roughly 120 primary contests across the city, but none in Staten Island.

The city board of election says some 2.8 million registered voters are eligible to cast a ballot in these races. The contests include some boroughwide primaries for Democratic nominee for district attorney in the Bronx and Queens, and several judicial contests and party positions. There are also 26 primaries for city council seats. Those contests will use ranked choice voting, where a voter picks, a candidate in order of preference from their first choice up to their fifth. Remember to confirm your early voting site before you go out to vote. There are 122 early voting sites for this election, but you're assigned to only one. And the deadline for new voters to register is tomorrow as well.

The MTA's online portal on proposed transit fair hikes is open for a public comment. The agency He wants to raise subway and bus fares to $2.90. Toll rates would also go up and weekly and monthly L.I.R. Metro North tickets would increase 4%. Staying the same price, senior citizen, disabled, student reduced fare, and paratransit zero fare. MTA hearing start and stream next Thursday. 81 with some isolated thunderstorms out there right now. A chance of midday and afternoon showers and possibly a thunderstorm later.

I get some hail and gusty winds a high near 78, but falling to 69. We are hurtling towards disaster, eyes wide open. UN Secretary General Antonio Gutettis said those words yesterday, warning that the world must phase out fossil fuels. And here in the New York City region, those words carry an extra urgency after recent days of smoke that had many staying inside. While the smoke here came not from fossil fuels,

but from wildfires, those are expected to be more frequent as the climate crisis gets even worse. But when it comes to a problem so global, what are the best ways for people to take control at the local level? Liz Moran is a policy advocate with Earth justice. She joins us now to talk about the most important steps local leaders could take right now. Liz, welcome to Morning Edition. Hi, thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. New York State already has climate mandates. geared towards limiting global warming. What are they? And are lawmakers doing what they need to do to

meet those mandates? Yeah. So New York State, thankfully, has one of the strongest climate laws in the country. It mandates that we achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. And there's some important intermediary goals like having a emissions free grid, for example. But we have a lot to do to make sure we meet those targets that we meet the mandates of our law. There's some progress happening, but we need to start adopting policies at breakneck speed to start getting rid of our climate pollution across all sectors of the economy. Let's look at the city level, Liz. What, in your opinion, is the one most pressing change that New York City officials can make right now to help curb the climate crisis?

It's really important to note New York City actually has two local laws that are extremely important when it comes to addressing the climate crisis. One is local law 97. And right now there are some battles underway to make sure that that is enforced as strongly as possible. And that New York City is adhering to the intent of that law. The other law is Local Law 154 of 2021, which was passed and mandates. all electric new construction in New York City. So these are fantastic laws exceptionally important because

buildings, both in New York City and statewide, are the largest sector of climate pollution in the state. So this is a sector that local government and cities and state, the state, has a lot of control over. So that's an important place to take action. On the state level, building, electrification remains important, but what other initiatives could lawmakers pursue and pursue aggressively to ensure change? I know the power grid is particularly important. Yeah, that's right. We need to be doing a lot more to make sure that we are getting more renewables online. Right now, renewables, mainly solar and wind, still only make up a pretty small percentage of New York State's grid power. We need to ramp that up significantly, and that means a lot more investments.

Another important policy was passed in this year's state budget called the Build Public Renewables Act, and that has a lot of potential to help us ramp up our renewables in the state. Liz, I'm curious, how can places like New York work with neighboring states to help counter the climate crisis, like perhaps better coordination? Yeah, you know, we do have some policies in place already that we do with. partnering states. One is called or fondly called Reggie. It stands for the regional greenhouse gas initiative. That's a cap and trade program that's been around since the 90s. But many have critiqued to that program for not being strong enough over the years. And also leaving what we

call disadvantaged communities, which are primarily commons of color and low-income communities behind in those processes. There's an opportunity, though, for New York State to move forward and get something right called cap and invest. This is different than cap and trade. This is a process the state will be going through to cap our emissions and make sure we're charging polluters for their pollution and putting it back into communities. So that's one way the state can move forward

and potentially look to other states as well in this process, though we really think it's most important for New York to focus on New York instead of model for other states in the region and country to follow. Liz Moran is a policy advocate with Earth's Justice. Liz, thank you for joining us this morning. Thanks again for having me. Thanks for listening.

This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More this evening.