1/16/25 - The Green Party of New York said that Governor Hochul’s State of the State failed to lay out the bold action needed to deal with the multiple crises facing New York. “Governor Hochul claims her 2025 agenda will deal with the economic problems facing working class New Yorkers, but her proposals are timid steps conditioned by corporate donors rather than the radical and swift action we need,” said Peter LaVenia, co-chair of the Green Party. The Green Party released its progressive agenda for 2025, including ballot access reform to restore third party political rights, enacting Ranked Choice Voting and proportional representation, passing state-wide single-payer universal healthcare, and needed housing reforms including rent control, constructing one million units of publicly owned social housing. The party argued for immediate action on climate change and opposed Hochul’s steps toward nuclear power, and said that taxing the rich, including stopping the rebate of the Stock Transfer Tax, would help pay for needed reforms and social program expansion including reinvestment in impacted communities, rather than Hochul’s small “inflation rebate” and tax cuts. They said immediate action should be taken to protect immigrants in the face of president-elect Trump’s threat to deport millions, and that New York should divest from companies involved in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Continue reading

11/9/24 The Green Party of New York called upon Governor Hochul to begin delivering on her promise to stand up for New Yorkers after Donald Trump’s election by signing key climate legislation including the Climate Superfund bill and restarting congestion pricing. The Green Party, which finished third in the national elections, also called upon state lawmakers to hold a special legislative session in early December to pass critical bills, particularly on climate and immigration rights, and to override any gubernatorial vetoes. They also said the Legislature should repeal the draconian ballot access laws passed under Cuomo in 2020 and work on making New York’s laws a gold standard for democracy and choice. “We need action, not sound bites. Voters rejected VP Harris because they know the Democrats are much better at making promises than they are at delivering them. With Trump poised to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, it is up to the states to provide real leadership. Hochul should make polluters pay by immediately signing the Climate Superfund Act. The Governor needs to speed up climate action, not weaken the already too slow timelines in the CLCPA while embracing false and expensive climate solutions like nuclear and hydrogen,” said Peter A. LaVenia, Jr., Green Party of New York co-chair. Continue reading

10/21/24 - New York is the worst state in the nation for voter choice at a time when growing numbers of citizens are dissatisfied with the Democratic and Republican party’s candidates, according to Green Party officials.  Party leaders pointed out that New York is the only state in the nation to have just two presidential candidates on the ballot, and that in the last 40 years this has happened in only one other state, Oklahoma. Oklahoma has since eased its ballot access laws in 2012 to allow for multiple presidential candidates.  The Green Party said that this lack of choice hurts democracy in New York, contributes to voter suppression, and amounts to cartelization of the political process by the Democratic and Republican parties. Party officials said that Gov. Kathleen Hochul and New York legislators should move quickly to restore ballot-access requirements to what they were prior to 2020’s draconian changes by disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and then work to make New York’s election laws a “gold standard” for the nation. Continue reading

9/3/24 Ahead of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s energy summit in Syracuse on September 5, the Green Party of New York urged state lawmakers to speed up the transition to zero emissions and 100% clean renewable energy. Hochul convened the summit after admitting that the state was failing to meet its clean energy goals, prompting business leaders to urge her to weaken the climate laws. The Green Party pushed for a climate law far stronger than the CLCPA (Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act) adopted 5 years ago. Since 2010 it has called for an ecosocialist Green New Deal in New York, with a ten-year timeline to 100% renewable energy and zero emissions, combined with a comprehensive economic Bill of Rights. The Party also urged lawmakers to implement the congestion pricing program for NYC that Hochul has halted. “Hochul and other Democrats, including Kamala Harris, continue to appease the fossil fuel industry and their campaign donors.  We need the Democrats to reject false climate solutions such as nuclear power, hydrogen, biofuels, fracking, natural gas, and carbon capture and sequestration. We need to create energy and economic systems that are publicly owned and democratically controlled that focus on preventing climate collapse and promote the common good, not wasting money on greening capitalism and the 1%,” said Gloria Mattera, co-chair of the Green Party. The Party faulted Hochul for slow-walking implementation of the Build Public Renewables Act and for failing to sign the legislation to block the use of carbon dioxide for fracking. Continue reading

3/28/24 The Green Party of New York (GPNY) announced today that Jill Stein had overwhelmingly won the New York primary for the Presidential nomination at their convention on Saturday in Troy, NY and will be placed on the Green Party of New York’s presidential nominating petition, winning 88.3 % of the vote and securing 12 of 13 delegates to the national convention. Jasmine Sherman also received 11.6% of the vote and 1 delegate.  Continue reading

Media Release For Immediate Release: December 29, 2023For More info: Gloria Mattera, [email protected], 917-886-4538Mark Dunlea, [email protected], 518 860-3725 Green Party Says Governor, State Lawmakers Need to Dramatically Accelerate Climate Action in 2024 Politicians Have Run out of Time to Avoid Major Climate Disruption, Need DiNapoli to Divest from Exxon and Other Oil and Gas Companies The Green Party of New York said today that New York needs to adopt an ecosocialist Green New Deal (GND)  that includes a transition to 100% clean renewable energy and zero emissions within a decade along with a strong economic Bill of Rights. This would include major subsidies to fund the rapid decarbonization of all buildings in the state, including heat pumps, geothermal, and energy conservation. Such efforts should begin immediately in all public buildings, starting with the State Capitol complex. The Green Party first called for a GND in 2010. The party criticized the so-called cap-trade-invest program being pushed by Governor Hochul as the wrong solution. The Greens said that the Democrats’ tepid climate agenda in New York, such as the CLCPA (Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act), is an example of the lack of effective government action on climate that led the UN Secretary-General to say that the Gates to Hell have been opened, as extreme weather exploded globally in 2023. Continue reading

10/8/23 - Calling Gov. Hochul’s denouncement of a Palestinian solidarity rally an act of political hypocrisy and cowardice, the Green Party of New York reaffirmed its commitment to the end of the occupation of Palestine. Green officers stated that oppressed peoples like the Palestinians living under occupation regimes had a right to resistance, and that the conditions of the occupation in Gaza border on genocidal. Greens also noted Hochul’s willingness in the last year and a half to support Ukrainian resistance to Russian occupation alongside her sanctimonious denouncement of Palestinian resistance against the Israeli apartheid state.  Continue reading

For Immediate Release May 31, 2023 Green Party Says NY Democrats Need to Act on Climate Before Adjourning The Green Party of New York is once again sounding the alarm that time is rapidly running out before global warming reaches the tipping point of no return. Party leaders call on the Governor and State Legislature to immediately enact a critical package of climate measures before adjourning on June 9th. The NY HEAT Act, Climate Superfund, and the 100% Renewable Capitol bill are among the measures supported by the Green Party. The Greens faulted the Democrats for failing to have raised at least $10 billion annually in the recent budget for climate measures but noted that the legislature still has the authority to enact climate revenue proposals before starting their six-month vacation. The state estimates that $3 trillion will need to be invested by 2050 to transition to 100% clean renewable energy. The Greens have also long supported recapturing the $15 billion annually (some years) from the existing state stock transfer tax, with at least some of the funds dedicated to a Green New Deal. The Green Party said that the handful of climate measures enacted in the recent budget is far short of the climate action needed to be taken. Scientists recently warned that they expect global warming to surpass the 1.5 degrees C target within the next five years – if not sooner. The United Nations has repeatedly issued a Code Red warning on climate change and said that governments are acting nowhere fast enough to avoid climate collapse. Continue reading

Green Party of New Yorkwww.gpny.org Media Release For Immediate Release: April 3, 2023For More info: Gloria Mattera, [email protected], 917-886-4538Peter LaVenia, [email protected], 518-495-8001Mark Dunlea, [email protected], 518 860-3725 Green Party Slams Hochul’s Effort to Gut the state’s Climate Agenda The Green Party of New York slammed Governor Hochul and Senator Parker for seeking to change the accounting rules on greenhouse emissions in order to appease the fossil fuel industry. “The Green Party in 2010 called for a Green New Deal, combining a ten-year timeline to transition to 100% clean renewable energy and zero emissions with comprehensive economic rights including a guaranteed living wage job, single payer universal health care, and affordable housing. 14 years later, the state gets only 5% of its electricity from wind and solar, and greenhouse gas emissions globally continue to rise. The Democrats remain unwilling to put the needs of the people ahead of the profits and campaign contributions of the fossil fuel industry,” said Gloria Mattera, co-chair of the state Green Party. Continue reading

Libertarian Party and Green Party File Petition to Appeal to U.S. Supreme Court in Ballot Access Case 3/13/23 -- The Libertarian Party of New York and the Green Party of New York have filed a petition for an appeal in their ballot access lawsuit to the Supreme Court of the United States.  The petition challenges the increase of New York State’s ballot access thresholds instituted in 2020 as part of then Governor Andrew Cuomo’s emergency COVID budget. The threshold for a party to maintain recognized party status and ballot access was increased from 50,000 votes to 130,000 votes or 2% of the vote in the previous gubernatorial or presidential election, whichever is higher. In addition, the signature threshold for getting an independent candidate on the ballot was increased from 15,000 signatures to 45,000 signatures. In 2020, four parties lost ballot access: the Libertarian Party, whose candidate Jo Jorgensen received over 60,000 votes; the Green Party, whose candidate Howie Hawkins received over 32,000 votes; the Independence Party, whose candidate Brock Pierce received over 22,000 votes; and the SAM Party, which did not run a candidate for President. In this election, only the Libertarian Party received over 50,000 votes, which was enough to maintain ballot access under the old thresholds. Continue reading