ENDWELL, NY (WSKG) — Environmentally-focused activists called on New York legislators to pass the Climate and Community Investment Act Tuesday.
A few dozen people, many of them high school students, gathered on the Ithaca Commons in support of the state legislation. If passed, it would implement taxes on large-scale greenhouse gas emitters and reinvest that money in environmental projects. Much of that would specifically target low-income communities impacted by environmental degradation.
"Making polluters pay. That's what we want to do,” Eden Lewis, one of the student speakers, told WSKG. “We want to make polluters pay and then reestablish that money into lower income communities."
Assemblymember Anna Kelles (D-125), whose district includes Ithaca, headlined the event. Kelles is a co-sponsor of the bill, which failed to be brought up for a vote in either of the last two sessions. She encouraged the attendees to spread the word about the CCIA and to keep pushing for the measure.