Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the congresswoman who built her national brand on the Green New Deal, has refused to say a word as Gov. Kathy Hochul dismantles the centerpiece of New York’s climate agenda. Hochul last week announced a budget deal that will defer major emissions-reduction policies until 2028 and effectively abandon a 2030 goal the state was never on track to meet. Ocasio-Cortez, POLITICO reported, did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the overhaul.
The silence is worth noting. This is the same lawmaker who, right after her first election win in 2018, joined protesters in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office to demand aggressive climate action. She introduced the Green New Deal in 2019. She backed New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act that same year. Climate was her signature cause, the issue that made her a household name.
Now the law she championed is being rewritten by a governor from her own party, and Ocasio-Cortez has nothing to say.