Protesters rap Cuomo climate plan

ALBANY — The Legislature’s first joint budget hearing of the year got off to a stormy start.

Protesters briefly flooded a hearing on environmental funding Monday as state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos attempted to praise Gov. Cuomo’s climate record.

A few dozen advocates descended upon the meeting to let Seggos know they don’t share the agency head’s assessment of his boss.

“We call bull—-t on the governor’s budget,” they chanted after storming the dais and surrounding Seggos where he sat seemingly unfazed.

The groups, part of the Movement for a Green New Deal coalition, called on Cuomo and state legislators to boost taxes on the state’s wealthiest residents to fund Green New Deal proposals. They also want the state to stop building all fossil fuel infrastructure, convert to 100% renewable energy as soon as possible and to put utility companies under public control.

Following the short disruption, Seggos said he sympathizes with the activists.

“I don’t begrudge the protesters and what they brought to the room today,” he said. “I might quibble with some of their facts and their language, but they are voicing what we’ve all seen now internationally, fear, a sense that governments have let them down. They need an outlet for their voices. I actually intend to stand with them in some ways.

“I think we need to completely rethink the way we are approaching the environment, approaching the world, approaching our societies,” he added.

Cuomo made environmental issues a priority in his $178 billion budget proposal earlier this month.

As part of his $178 billion budget proposal, the governor made a five-year, $33 billion promise to combat climate change.

“We start with the most aggressive climate change program in the country because, my friends, the clock is ticking, and it’s ticking faster and faster,” Cuomo said during the Albany address last week.