ALBANY, N.Y. \u2014 Concerns continue to rise over the cost of achieving New York\u2019s green energy goals.\u00a0 In a leaked memo to the Governor\u2019s Director of Operations, the President of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) indicated the new policies could cost upstate New York families more than $4,000 annually in additional energy costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Climate Leadership and Protection Act (CLCPA) mandates 70% of the state\u2019s electricity be generated from renewable sources and aims for a 40% reduction in emissions by 2030. Per the memo, absent any changes, by 2031, the impact of CLCPA on the price of gasoline could exceed $2.23\/gallon on top of current prices and upstate oil and natural gas households could see costs \u201cin excess of $4,000\u201d a year. NYSERDA indicated only a portion of those costs could be offset by the current policy design and warned that businesses could see anywhere from a 13-46% rise in energy expenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a statement, Bob Duffy, the President of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce says, \u201cNYSERDA\u2019s findings make it clear: New York State cannot reach both its CLCPA targets and pressing affordability needs.\u00a0 We urge partners in the legislature to pass common-sense reforms to CLCPA timelines and regulations to avoid these significant cost increases for New Yorkers.\u00a0 Implementing thoughtful policies and addressing unrealistic timelines is a necessity to ensuring that communities here can afford to heat their homes while we invest in advancements to support our long-term climate goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
News10NBC has previously reported on series grid and capacity issues across the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice that they\u2019re admitting the truth. We\u2019ve heard for the past few years that everything was going swimmingly\u2026 to admit what we have been saying for years that the CLCPA achieving those goals is infeasible, is refreshing to hear, but what\u2019s the next step,\u201d wonders Assembly Member Josh Jensen, a republican from Greece.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Assembly member Harry Bronson, a democrat from Rochester, voted for the CLCPA and spoke with News10NBC Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke about how lawmakers will move forward with this new information.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jennifer Lewke: \u201cWhere do you stand on the timeline here and the concerns that NYSERDA is bringing up about how much this might cost people?\u201d<\/p>\n
Assembly Member Bronson: \u00a0\u201cWell, first of all, let\u2019s remember that the goals are truly goals.. they\u2019re aspirational. \u00a0The bill we passed a few years ago, we aspire to have certain percentages that are renewable energy so, that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re set in stone and we have to reach them by a certain time. \u00a0Second, we always have to balance affordability and the cost to our rate payers and to our families with our transition to a green economy, so, we\u2019re gonna take steps to try to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jennifer Lewke: \u00a0\u201cAre you open to looking at the schedule and saying we really need to balance affordability with realistically what people can do and at what cost?\u201d<\/p>\n
Assembly Member Bronson: \u201cAs I said, the law we passed sets goals and aspirations\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Jennifer Lewke: \u201cThere\u2019s some pretty hard deadlines in there\u2026\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Assembly Member Bronson:\u00a0 \u201cThe deadlines are still goals and aspirations and so we will be able to be flexible, but we need to make sure we keep our eye on where we need to go and that is to have a Green sustainable economy so that our children and our grandchildren have a quality of life and a safe planet to live on. That\u2019s what we have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jennifer Lewke: \u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the governor already put some delays into place, with the electric school bus mandate for example.\u00a0 Some local districts have voted down purchasing any at all so what happens if that continues?<\/p>\n
Assembly Member Bronson: \u201cMy own school district voted down the purchase of an electric bus so, that\u2019s something we\u2019re going have to monitor and see.\u00a0 We\u2019re controlled by the votes right so, if people in districts continue not to want to have those purchases the state can\u2019t force it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The memo from NYSERDA outlines that the energy targets adopted in 2019 didn\u2019t anticipate factors like \u201cthe federal policy landscape, the disruptive and lingering impacts of COVID-19 and the subsequent supply chain crisis, the return of an inflationary economy, and the influence of geopolitical events on energy costs generally.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, Renewable Heat Now says, \u201cThe CLCPA offers New York the best chance to transition from the state\u2019s current status quo that relies heavily on gas that has worsened a growing energy affordability crisis. The landmark climate law is meant to usher in investments in cost-saving energy efficiency upgrades to people\u2019s homes, more affordable renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, and heat pumps that free customers from the volatility of fossil fuel prices.\u201d<\/p>\n
During an event in New York City this week, Governor Hochul indicated changes are likely coming, \u201cthe world has changed dramatically since 2019 \u2013 I wish it hadn\u2019t,\u201d she said. \u201cI wish all the circumstances and metrics that were looked at back in 2019 had remained consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0renewable energy<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0power grid<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0power<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0energy<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0clcpa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY, N.Y. \u2014 Concerns continue to rise over the cost of achieving New York\u2019s green energy goals.\u00a0 In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19588,4762,9,11,10,10877,3212,2157],"class_list":{"0":"post-147860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-clcpa","9":"tag-energy","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-power","14":"tag-power-grid","15":"tag-renewable-energy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}