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The Dartmouth
July 28, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Hawkins '75 enters ring in N.Y. governor race

A former Marine and construction worker, Howie Hawkins '75 has spent the last decade unloading trucks for UPS. But Hawkins is now vying for a new position governor of New York. Hawkins, a Green Party candidate from Albany, N.Y., wants to invest heavily in renewable, clean energy, Mark Dunlea, Hawkins's senior adviser, said.

Hawkins aims to create a carbon-free economy in New York in the next 10 years, Dunlea said, adding that the gubernatorial candidate wants to invest in renewable energy "much, much bigger than what the Democrats are talking about" to reach this goal.

Dunlea said that Hawkins plans to invest a "massive amount of money" in renewable energy research, exploring solar, wind and geothermal energy.

"[Hawkins] would tax all uses of carbon in order to begin to try to impose a more realistic cost on what they're doing," Dunlea said. "Certainly doing business as usual is not going to give us a carbon-free economy."

Along with other members of the Green Party, Hawkins said he supports a statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking a process that creates breaks in rock formations to increase oil well output.

"It's a threat to water in upstate New York," Hawkins said in an interview with The Dartmouth.

The back flow from the process poses the biggest threat to the water system, Hawkins said. Some counties put the back flow through their sewage treatment systems but do not remove the chemicals in the water, causing a threat to public health.

Contamination of the water system also threatens New York's settlement, industry and landscape, Hawkins said.

Hawkins has run unsuccessfully for a variety of public offices in New York under the Green Party every year since 1993, he said. He helped form the Green Party in 1984 to align with his "independent, progressive" views, he said.

"I'm not looking to win the office," Hawkins said, adding that his goal is to "win the debate" and move the Green Party into the political limelight.

Dunlea said that Hawkins supports energy conservation, calling it the "simplest thing to do." Hawkins also plans to invest in a smart electrical grid a system that "makes it easier to move electricity around different regions," Dunlea said.

"Natural gas is a dirty fossil fuel," Hawkins said. "That bridge is out, and we're going over the cliff to global warming."

Hawkin's conservation program would include an expanded public transportation system that would reduce commuters' reliance on cars, and therefore would produce fewer carbon emissions, he said.

Dunlea criticized the country's current transportation system.

"I don't know what Amtrak is trying to do, other than scare away customers and run away profit," Dunlea said.

The conservation program would also include environmentally conscious construction projects that rely on solar panels, improved insulation and ground-source heat pumps which use solar energy stored in the ground for heating and cooling, Hawkins said.

These construction projects should also make the communities more "walkable," with schools, shops and civic buildings easily accessible by foot, Hawkins said.

Hawkins is also calling for an "economic Bill of Rights" that would ensure the right to employment, Dunlea said.

"If you can't get a job in the private sector, the public sector would provide you the job," Dunlea said.

In this system modeled after Works Progress Administration established after the Great Depression a county or city would assess its needs for public works and services.

"You would have those jobs on the shelf," Hawkins said, adding that they would be given out to unemployed citizens when unemployment in the private sector began to rise.

This would be funded by progressive taxes, he said.

Dunlea called private health insurance the "biggest problem" in America's health care system, adding that Hawkins supports a single-payer health care system similar to Medicare that would have one billing system.

"The efficiencies would allow you to cover everybody at a lower cost," Hawkins said.

Hawkins has argued that this system would cut health care costs in New York by $28 billion by 2019, he said.

Hawkins also plans to fully fund all public colleges and universities, making tuition free for students at these institutions, Dunlea said.

"He would pay for it by making the rich pay their fair share of taxes," Dunlea said. "The poorest people in New York State pay the most taxes."