New York climate action plan takes aim at fossil fuels

climate

ALBANY — A state climate panel dominated by political appointees and allies of Gov. Kathy Hochul embraced a plan Monday aimed at sharply reducing New York’s reliance on fossil fuels and nudging consumers and businesses to convert to electric heating.

By 2025, all new homes built in New York would have to have energy-efficient electric heat pumps. Existing homes would have to get the devices beginning in 2030 when existing oil or gas heating units have to be replaced.

WILL CREATE JOBS

State Environmental Commissioner Basil Seggos, co-chair of the state Climate Action Council, noted in voting to adopt the climate scoping plan that he believes it will ultimately benefit New York’s economy.

“We have businesses that are looking to plant a flag in the ground and create jobs based on this economy,” Seggos said. “They’re doing so already — and of course the private investment behind that.”

Setting the plan in motion, Seggos acknowledged, will require “a huge amount of funding.”

It will also require revisions to the state building code as well as state legislation.

The council approved the plan by a vote of 19 to 3.

‘SENDS A NEGATIVE MESSAGE’

Among the dissenters was Gavin Donohue, president of the Independent Oil Producers of New York, an industry trade group. He criticized the plan for failing to address projected cost impacts on consumers in connection with requirements for them to electrify their homes and offices.

Donohue also said the plan focuses far more on promoting bans and moratorium on appliances and fossil fuels without discussing technologies that would comply with the goals of reducing greenhouse gases. “To me that sends a negative message about New York and its business future,” he said.

The scoping plan adopted Monday is an offshoot of 2019 legislation called the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. It requires a zero-emission grid by 2040, with 70% of New York’s energy coming from clean sources by 2030 and even more — 85% — by 2050.

One of the most enthusiastic boosters of the plan was Doreen Harris, president and CEO of NYSERDA, a state public authority, and co-chair of the climate council. She suggested the blueprint for decarbonizing New York’s economy will serve as a model for the nation.

GLOBAL CHALLENGES

Harris argued the state stands to gain more than 200,000 new jobs for making the shift in its sources of energy.

“While we always prefer to focus on what is happening within our New York borders, we must realize we are taking on global environmental challenges, looking to influence international consumer markets and creating education and career opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people so they can provide for their families and actively participate in their communities,” she said.

A Western New York energy company executive, Donna DeCarolis, president of National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp and a climate council member, voted against the plan, contending a one-size-fits-all approach is doomed in New York due to its diversity of climate and economic conditions from region to region.

CALL FOR HYBRID SYSTEM

DeCarolis said the plan relies too heavily on renewable energy sources that are prone to disruption from extreme weather events while failing to include assessments on the financial impacts on consumers.

She also called for incorporating a “dual or hybrid heating system pathway,” one that would include a natural gas system, in recognition that the upstate region has a “significantly colder” climate.

Reacting to the climate plan, the New York Farm Bureau noted its support to have “renewable natural gas” and biofuels included in any shift.

“Major concerns remain including the push for electric, zero-emission agricultural vehicles when the technology does not exist for such equipment,” David Fisher, the Farm Bureau president, said in a statement. “The future commercial viability of the equipment must also be affordable and accessible for the state’s farmers. There must also be a power grid in every region of the state that can handle the electrical demand that the Climate Action Council is seeking today.”

GOP: PLAN PUTS LIVES IN JEOPARDY

Republican leaders voiced opposition to the 445-page scoping document adopted by the council.

“The scoping plan released by the Climate Action Council will negatively impact my constituents, and millions of other New Yorkers, by making life more expensive and putting their livelihoods in jeopardy,” said Senate GOP Leader Rob Ortt, R-Niagara County, said in a statement.

Assembly Republican Leader Will Barclay III, R-Pulaski, said the scoping document “isn’t worth the paper it’s written on” because it leaves out “reliable energy production” planning.

“What has been presented disregards the unprecedented costs needed to implement these changes and what consumers are going to be forced to pay at a time when affordability concerns have never been higher,” Barclay said.

But Robert Howarth, a Cornell University professor who voted in favor of the plan, called New York’s 2019 climate measure that set the stage for the scoping effort “some of the most progressive climate legislation in the world.”

Source: Pressrepublican.com

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