Cutting Costs and Climate Pollution in New York

New Yorkers deserve affordable housing and energy, clean air, and robust, safe transit. To make progress, we need to require data centers to be powered with clean energy, enact long-overdue utility reforms, and finally advance the long-awaited Clean Air Initiative that would set economy-wide greenhouse gas pollution limits. New York can pave the way on climate progress and improve people’s lives, by building on recent successes like congestion pricing and fighting back against the federal government's unprecedented assault on cheap, clean energy like offshore wind.
Key Goals For New York

Advance and shape the Clean Air Initiative

Defend New York’s congestion pricing program

Support requirements for data centers to supply and pay for their own clean energy

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    New York’s Major Breakthrough on Congestion Pricing

    Rarely do public policies show overnight results. But not long into its congestion pricing program, the Big Apple’s $9 charge for vehicles traveling during peak hours has dramatically improved lives for the better.

    Under the shadow of ongoing federal assaults on climate policy, this program has been a glimmer of pollution-cutting progress. Revenue from congestion pricing is on track to reach $500 million, directly supporting upgrades to New York’s public transportation. From the program’s inception to September 2025, it was found that 87,000 fewer vehicles entered the “congestion zone” per day, and a total of 17.6 million fewer vehicles entered Manhattan—a 12 percent drop in traffic.

    Here’s how other states can follow suit.

    What's Happening Now

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    Justin Backal Balik
    “Congestion pricing is working exactly as promised: cutting traffic, strengthening the economy, cleaning the air, and modernizing New York’s transit system. Despite relentless political attacks from the Trump administration and their fossil fuel allies, the program remains both popular and legally rock-solid.”

    Justin Backal Balik

    Vice President, States

    Evergreen

    On the Ground in the Empire State

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    Why New York Matters

    New York, at this moment, can lead the nation by showing that clean energy and cutting costs go hand in hand.

    Key Recommendations

  • Maintain the commitments in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act
  • Embrace clean energy as an affordability solution
  • Require data centers to bring their own clean energy
  • Advance utility reform and distributed energy to cut costs
  • Implement the Clean Air Initiative to invest in communities

    • What’s happening on climate and clean energy in New York

    Delivering for New Yorkers

    Evergreen is partnering with state leaders and local groups to stand up to polluters, advance smart climate policy that makes life more affordable and healthier for New Yorkers, and defend what’s already on the books.

    Innovative Policies for a Better Future

    New York City’s $9 charge to vehicles traveling during peak hours has dramatically improved residents’ and visitors’ lives for the better. (© 2026 Metropolitan Transportation Authority/Flickr CC BY 4.0)

    A sign for the New York City Congestion Pricing Program in Manhattan, with cars and buildings in the background.

    It was the work of a diverse coalition across labor, policy, transportation, and public health that eventually led to the proposal and implementation of congestion pricing. (MDoculus/iStock Editorial/Getty Images Plus via Getty Images)

    Also referred to as the Clean Air Initiative, New York’s proposed cap-and-invest program will set enforceable statewide emissions caps that decline year by year. (Con Edison power plant in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images via Getty Images)

    New York Resources

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    New York News

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    New York Actions

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