New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was protested in Albany on April 23rd over his policies on the environment and climate change. Fifty-six people were arrested, among them Green candidate for governor, Howie Hawkins.
Protesters demanded Cuomo block all new natural gas infrastructure in the state, including pipelines and power plants; move transition to 100 percent renewable energy (not just electric energy), and tax emissions to fund the transition. Local groups also protested individual natural gas projects in their communities. In the civil disobedience portion of the action as" joyous, loud, beautiful-sounding singing" with people "gathered in a big circle in a room, 'The War Room,' on the same floor as the Governor’s office" The protesters "sat in a nearby hallway in a very big oval-like circle, lifting our voices as if the future depended upon it."
In an op-ed explaining why it was necessary to risk arrest to save the planet from climate change, Hawkins describes five decades of activism that has included civil disobedience for clean energy, against carbon energy as well as against nuclear energy.