by Jill Henck, ANCA Clean Energy Program Director
In a recent statement, New York State Senator Dan Stec makes an important point about treacherous storms that have hit the North Country — proof that our state has an urgent need to improve and implement our climate resiliency plans.
Climate change is no longer a theory that will play out sometime down the line in someone else’s community. Tornados, increased rainfall and temperatures, later lake freezing dates and earlier ice-off dates, and decreased snow cover are all visible impacts of climate change that our North Country communities are experiencing now.
Given this urgency, New York State leaders and experts including state agency representatives, farmers, contractors, teachers, advocacy leaders, biomass professionals, union representatives, utility representatives, and engineers have put in years of work to formulate an appropriate and effective plan to help mitigate the economic and health impacts of climate change.
A plan of this magnitude in a state as diverse as New York is understandably controversial. Additionally, the programs and policies resulting from the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA or Climate Act) are iterative and, thanks to our state’s democratic processes, all New Yorkers can provide feedback.
As a member of the Climate Justice Working Group that established the Disadvantaged Communities (DAC) criteria, I urge rural stakeholders to have a
voice in this conversation. ANCA is also a member of NYSERDA’s Energy Equity Collaborative, which is a consortium of stakeholders from across the state who are working to make sure that there is diverse representation in designing programs and policies that are slowly ushering New York toward its climate goals. As our organizations work diligently to give voice to these populations, we encourage our state representatives to join the battle against climate change while helping create a responsive plan that addresses the urgent and long-term needs of our communities.
The CLCPA enables agencies and organizations to provide funding and resources to support the resiliency of the electric grid. This means investing in aging transmission infrastructure and building a diverse power supply that includes renewable energy and battery storage. In a recent article in the Adirondack Explorer, Jessica Ottney Mahar, director of policy and strategy for The Nature Conservancy in New York points out that our existing infrastructure is still dependent on fossil fuels and that this factor does not make it more reliable. When a storm takes out power lines, it does not consider the origin of the electricity they’re carrying.
In addition to investing in critical infrastructure, the Climate Act is bolstering clean energy workforce development efforts so we are prepared to act swiftly to keep the power on when these interruptions occur. Programs like the North Country Clean Energy Hub — a partnership between ANCA, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties, and SUNY Canton — are helping North Country residents, with a focus on our most vulnerable, upgrade their aging HVAC and energy efficiency systems. These efforts also support good-paying local jobs which, in turn, make clean energy programs and incentives more accessible to more residents and businesses interested in making their buildings and properties more comfortable and less damaging to their health and the environment.
ANCA Clean Energy Program Director Jill Henck was joined by community leaders, clean energy experts and workforce development professionals at ANCA’s 2024 Clean Energy Conference in Clayton, N.Y.
According to the North Country Clean Energy Hub’s recent barriers analysis (publicly available soon), the majority of our region’s residents have inconsistent access to utility gas, and therefore rely on electric, fuel oil, kerosene, or wood-based heating systems. To be clear, all but wood-fired heat, including gas-fired furnaces, are inoperable in a power outage without the use of a battery storage system or a generator.
New York State and the federal government are now offering unprecedented incentives to upgrade to more efficient systems so that our most vulnerable neighbors can access healthier, safer, and more comfortable homes. The North Country Clean Energy Hub is here to connect residents and businesses with these resources and other technical assistance, free of charge. With this kind of support, we aim to promote the adoption of new, subsidized, electrified HVAC systems, which are much safer and more reliable than aging fossil-fuel systems that are tied to rising fuel costs.
Quantifying the costs of climate change is extremely complicated. There can be significant disparities, depending on the data that is collected and reported and who is doing the analysis.
In the aforementioned Adirondack Explorer article, Marguerite Wells, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, welcomes a more detailed analysis of the Climate Act’s costs, citing that “any fiscal impact examination should also look at what could happen without the law.” When analyzing whether or not we can afford this effort, it is imperative to also consider how clean energy adoption and other mitigation actions can significantly reduce or eliminate costs associated with climate change.
Delmar Lambert from Alexandria Central School gives a tour of the district’s new electric bus at ANCA’s 2024 Clean Energy Conference.
Another lesser-mentioned aspect of the CLCPA is the implementation of New York’s Cap-and-Invest (NYCI) initiative that will charge our state’s largest polluters for their emissions and return those funds to stakeholders through a Climate Investment Account. More information about opportunities to participate in the public process around NYCI can be found here.
The CLCPA is a work in progress. As one of the most ambitious climate laws ever enacted, it should not be surprising that there are implementation challenges. I am proud to work on this forward-looking initiative that was created to provide safer spaces for my family and my neighbors. It is imperative that we collaborate, employ critical thinking, and work through implementation challenges in order to serve the collective needs and best interests of our region.
Rejecting the Climate Act is not a viable solution to our current economic and energy challenges. Giving up now would have irreversible consequences for generations to come.
Photos: ANCA is proud to work with clean energy partners and stakeholders to advance New York’s climate goals. In May, we gathered in community to discuss key climate and clean energy issues at our 2024 Clean Energy Conference.