Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer kicked off Heatmap House, a daylong series of panels and one-on-one conversations with investors, founders, and policymakers at New York Climate Week, with a rousing condemnation of the Trump administration’s climate policies and a call to action for climate advocates everywhere.
“Why, with AI creating a huge demand for energy, would we cut off the quickest and cleanest way to get new electrons on the grid — solar? It’s the quickest, it’s the cheapest. Why would we do that?,” Schumer asked at the start of our morning session, “The Big (Green) Apple: Building a Climate Ready NYC.” The senator (a born and raised Brooklynite, who has served as a senator from New York since 1998) was of course referring to Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which accelerated the sunsetting of wind and solar tax credits that were previously expanded and extended under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Schumer played a key role in the passage of the IRA, wrangling with former Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia for months in the summer of 2022 to get the bill over the finish line. At Heatmap House, Schumer described the experience of watching what he deemed “The Big Ugly Bill” roll back many of his hard-fought wins.
“New York remains the climate leader, but Donald Trump is doing everything in his power to kill solar, wind, batteries, EVs and all climate friendly technologies while propping up fossil fuels, Big Oil, and polluting technologies that hurt our communities and our growth,” Schumer said. The administration’s actions are killing jobs, he asserted, while “making it harder and more costly for everyday Americans to live and breathe.”
One of the most tangible ways that Americans across the country are experiencing climate change is through more frequent and more severe extreme weather events such as fires, hurricanes, and floods. Last year, Schumer noted, was one of the costliest on record for natural disasters in the US, totaling about $182 billion of damage. The increasing frequency ing frequency of billion-dollar disasters is hitting ordinary Americans in the pocketbook. “Home insurance costs in a whole bunch of states are skyrocketing because of all of these disasters,” Schumer explained, adding that Americans are beginning to recognize how rising emissions are connected to their own rising costs.
But Schumer is no pessimist, and he charted a path forward for Democrats to take back the Senate and resurrect the clean energy policies in the IRA. “All of us must fight back, connecting the dots with the American people. When electricity goes up, it’s because of what Trump did. When your home insurance goes up, it’s because of what Trump did, when it’s going to be harder to make your house cheaper because it’ll consume less energy, it’s because of what Trump did.”
With the cost of living weighing heavily on many Americans, Schumer said now is the time to “harmonize the message” around prices and Trump’s energy policies. And he paired that call to action with a bold promise indeed. “If we take back the Senate, all the good things we’ve done in the IRA will be fully and completely restored, and we’ll go even further than that.”
