As wildfire smoke blanketed upstate New York earlier this month, Congressman Marc Molinaro appeared on Fox News to say “this isn’t the moment” to deal with climate change. He’s wrong.
Climate change is an existential threat to my son’s generation, and it needs to be addressed with urgency. But climate change is not only a major challenge; it’s also a unique opportunity for upstate New York. To save the planet, we will need all kinds of new technologies. And what better place to make them than here?
When my family came to Endicott, Broome County, over a century ago, the region was known as a “Valley of Opportunity” because of its abundant jobs and strong middle class. For generations, we manufactured products the world needed to meet its biggest challenges — tabulating machines for the Social Security Administration, boots for soldiers fighting World War II, circuit boards that spurred the technology revolution.
That changed as my generation came of age. We lost thousands of good jobs when plants closed. Poverty increased. The opioid epidemic took hold. Meanwhile, Wall Street enjoyed record profits.
But there are reasons to believe upstate New York is turning a corner.
Last year, I invited Congressman Paul Tonko, chairman of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Climate Change, to tour my hometown. I showed him that the plants where my family once worked are being transformed into clean-energy manufacturing operations. With the right policies, we will again be a Valley of Opportunity where folks can earn a place in the middle class by manufacturing the things we need to save the planet.
But instead of supporting those investments, Molinaro called them a “bad idea,” and he derided them as “reckless spending.” He voted to cut federal investments in advanced clean-energy manufacturing. That vote jeopardizes the progress being made here.
So I was disappointed, but not surprised, when Rep. Molinaro said it was too soon to address climate change. After all, he is bankrolled by the same Big Oil interests who will benefit the most if America stays dependent on fossil fuels instead of transitioning to the clean-energy future we’re building. (Petroleum giant Koch Industries is among his biggest donors, and Big Oil spent over $50 million for Molinaro to be in the House majority.)
Instead of selling us out to the highest bidder, our elected officials should buy into the promise and potential of upstate New York and support federal investments in clean-energy advanced manufacturing.
Joshua Riley is an Ithaca resident, a Broome County native and a candidate for Congress in New York’s 19th Congressional District.