Flooding subways, wildfire smog, and power shortages reminded us all summer that climate change is here. As energy demand rises at the fastest rate in decades, New Yorkers have faced soaring energy bills. We’ve fallen behind on our state climate goals, and New Yorkers are feeling the results. The status quo on energy policy isn’t cutting it.
It’s time for New York State to take a larger role in addressing the climate crisis and affordability. While the Trump administration, rightfully, gets much of the blame for crippling progress on energy affordability, New York has to keep leading.
New York can act now by moving clean energy projects forward and planning for the state’s long-term energy needs. Doing so will help lower costs, strengthen communities and create family-sustaining union careers.
That’s why organized labor and the environmental movement are coming together with a shared vision and asking the state to let us build.
There are several levers the state can pull to get projects moving right now. We already have money allocated and project plans ready to go, we just need New York State to let us get shovels in the ground.
For each of the past two years, one of the biggest victories state lawmakers have secured for the climate is allocating $1 billion annually to the Sustainable Future Fund, intended to accelerate clean energy projects. Making sure this money flows into projects and programs quickly will help deliver relief New Yorkers need now.
Similarly, a 2022 law paved the way for thermal energy networks across the state, which provide entire neighborhoods with clean, emissions-free heating and cooling. Projects are planned and union workers are ready to build, as soon as the Public Service Commission issues final approvals.
New York must also take a more assertive approach to planning the state’s energy future. We have a complicated and fragmented electric and gas system, where no entity has a clear view of full system needs or the ability to plan for our long-term future of these major energy utilities.
We don’t treat other critical public infrastructure this way — when we build a road, the government looks at what other roads already exist and where a new road is most needed. It considers if a train might be a better option. That’s what we need to do with energy: empower New York State to look at the full picture of our energy system, identify our current and future needs, and come up with solutions that best solve those needs, putting the public interest first.
New York State is past due for comprehensive integrated system planning to forecast energy needs and implement actionable plans to get the right projects built at the necessary speed and scale, by union labor.
Yet even if New York replaced all of its fossil fuel power plants with clean energy, we would not have hit our original target of a 40 percent decrease in planet-warming pollution by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, without additional emissions reductions from other sectors. The state ought to explore ways to aggregate and accelerate climate action in sectors that have been traditionally harder to decarbonize – like residential buildings and transportation.
For example, state agencies and trusted community groups could reach out to an entire neighborhood at a time to make energy efficiency upgrades and install home solar and batteries, bundled together to lower costs and maximize the benefits of decarbonizing buildings for residents.
Achieving energy reliability and significant emissions reductions will require reliable funding streams. New York must fully implement its planned cap-and-invest program to make polluters pay for climate solutions.
New York’s union workforce is ready to build a more sustainable, decarbonized, and affordable future. With a green light to build and a clear plan for the state’s clean energy future, unions will have the predictable forecast and steady pipeline of work needed to expand opportunities and bring in more members. Union training programs actively recruit from low-income communities who are often most harmed by climate change.
The clean energy transition should not be something that happens to workers; we should build it, benefit from it, and have a stake in the economy it creates.
The problems of climate change and energy affordability will not go away if we take a backseat. But with working people at the center, and with New York State taking an active leadership role, we can build our way out of these crises. We can confront climate change, lower costs, and create good union jobs – all at once.
Julie Tighe, President of the New York League of Conservation Voters and Esther Rosario, Executive Director of Climate Jobs NY