Last year, Governor Cuomo and state lawmakers\nagreed on ambitious goals to show the nation how to attack the climate crisis\nhere in our own backyard. It is\nwell-established that the burning of oil, coal and gas has triggered global\nwarming that threatens our habitat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Removing the atmospheric \u201cblanket\u201d created by\nfossil fuel emissions requires humankind to drastically reduce its reliance on\noil, coal and gas for power. Instead the\nworld will have to rely on newer, non-carbon-based, sources of power \u2013 like\nsolar and wind \u2013 and prioritize energy efficiency and conservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The nation is well aware of this necessary\nchange, but the failures of the political leadership \u2013 most notably of late the\nnegligence of the anti-science policies of the Trump Administration \u2013 has\nrequired American states to lead the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With much fanfare, last year New York set\nsome of the most ambitious goals for tackling the looming climate\ncatastrophe. In 2019, the legislature passed\nthe Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The legislation established an ambitious plan\nthat mandates that, by the year 2040 100 percent of the state\u2019s electricity be\ngenerated non-fossil fuel power, and that 70 percent of electricity be\ngenerated by renewable<\/em> sources by 2030. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, the new law requires that by\n2050 the state must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990\nlevels and offset the remaining 15% by reforestation, carbon sequestration in\nsoils and other actions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After the governor approved the legislation, New\nYork joined Maine, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, California, and\nNew Jersey, which have passed substantive clean energy policies in the past\nyear or so. (Hawaii has had its 100\npercent renewables target in place since 2015.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the legislation offered little in the way\nof details on how<\/em> the state would achieve these laudable goals. Instead, the legislation established a panel,\na 22-member Climate Action Council, to develop the roadmap for action. The Council, composed of the heads of various\nstate agencies, along with members appointed by the governor, the Senate, and\nthe Assembly, will be holding its first meeting this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first action the Council must take, and\nit should be done right away, is to develop a baseline of where the state is at\ncurrently in terms of renewable power and greenhouse gas emissions. It is critically important that the Council\nset that benchmark and develop an easy-to-use, publicly accessible climate goal\ndashboard to ensure accountability of the progress the state is making. If we don\u2019t know where we are at now, we have\nno way to determine whether we\u2019re making progress in meeting these ambitious —\nbut absolutely necessary — goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The public must believe that progress is\nbeing made and the state must make progress. \nWaiting until the last minute ensures that New York won\u2019t meet its\ngoals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a history of the state\u2019s\nenvironmental rhetoric not meeting the environmental reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\n2004, then-Governor Pataki promised that the state would achieve 25% renewable\nenergy for electricity by 2013. That\ngoal was increased to 30% by 2015 under then-Governor Patterson. In 2009, Governor Paterson amended the goal to\nobtain 45% of the state\u2019s electricity by clean power and energy efficiency. In 2015, the state did not meet those\ngoals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nfact, since these goals were established, New York has added less<\/em> than\n5% of its power production from wind and solar sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to meet the new legislation\u2019s goals, New York\nmust cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2.7% each year to meet its 2030 goal, and\n2.25% each year afterwards to meet the 2050 goal. Emission reductions must be accelerated across\nall sectors, especially in transportation, which accounts for the largest share\nof greenhouse gas emissions in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If New York is going to meet its renewable energy goals,\nsolar and wind will need to increase by 6.5% annually until 2030, and 3%\nannually afterwards to meet the 2040 goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But unless there is widespread public support for these\nchanges, the overhaul of the state\u2019s energy sector will be much harder to\nachieve. And the key to that success\nhinges on the Climate Action Council taking its first steps \u2013 immediate<\/em>\nsteps \u2013 to ensure accountability and transparency in tracking progress toward\nits important goals. Failure to achieve\nthose goals could result in a more devastating future for the people of the\nworld. Among its first tasks the Council\nshould develop a dashboard so New Yorkers can monitor whether New York is\nmeeting its mandate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition to\nrenewable energy. Everything is riding\non a successful effort. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last year, Governor Cuomo and state lawmakers agreed on ambitious goals to show the nation how to attack the climate crisis here in our own backyard. It is well-established that the burning of oil, coal and gas has triggered global warming that threatens our habitat. Removing the atmospheric \u201cblanket\u201d created by fossil fuel emissions requires […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2368,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367\/revisions\/2368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}