If congestion pricing can’t happen in New York, it probably cannot happen anywhere else in the United States, climate policy advocates warn.
Environmental policy experts across the country are reeling in the wake of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s abrupt indefinite suspension of a plan to toll drivers $15 a day to enter the most congested parts of New York City. They are worried that if New York can’t find a way to implement congestion pricing, most major U.S. cities will never follow suit.
“Out of nowhere, the governor bowed to ‘Big Car,’ whose only argument was: We want to keep driving anywhere we want,” Bill McKibben, a leading environmentalist, told NOTUS. “It’s devastating to the people who worked for years on it in good faith, and it’s devastating to anyone anywhere in the country trying to build innovative projects to address the greatest crisis our species has faced. I can’t think of a single action by a major Democratic governor that’s as thoroughly anti-environmental,” he added.