The recently released New York State Energy Plan shows NY missing key climate law mandates, and includes false energy solutions like nuclear and the repowering of toxic, aging gas power plants. 

New Yorkers deserve a reliable, clean, and affordable energy system that reduces our reliance on fossil fuels and leads to a healthier environment for everyone—especially NY’s frontline communities, families, and workers disproportionately impacted by pollution. 

All of this is within reach. We’re calling on Governor Hochul’s Energy Research and Development Authority to launch NY’s program to make polluters pay for their emissions and invest in making New York a place where everyone can breathe, survive, and thrive. 

We cannot allow Hochul to use the updated State Energy Plan to erase the 2022 CLCPA Scoping Plan, and we can’t allow New York to move forward with dangerous, costly, and speculative energy schemes instead of the simple solutions we know work: building out wind and solar energy, making corporate polluters pay, and investing in community-level climate resilience and adaptation measures like improved public transportation infrastructure and weatherproofed, climate-ready homes and apartment buildings.  

Submit a letter to NYSERDA today and tell Governor Hochul’s state agency that we demand an energy plan for people and planet—not corporate polluters.

SAMPLE LETTER

To the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority,

New York’s recently released State Energy Plan is a defeatist document that paves the way for expanded fossil fuel infrastructure so that the state’s aging natural gas fleet “can remain operable to help meet rising electricity needs.” 

But this is a bad-faith argument. 

Critical goals are going unfulfilled, like slashing greenhouse gas emissions to limit global heating to 1.5 °C and protecting frontline communities from the ravaging effects of continued fossil fuel use: asthma, heatstroke, extreme weather events, catastrophic floods, and more.

Over the last four years, Governor Hochul has taken New York down a path of incrementalism and inaction. The latest State Energy Plan is designed to justify the abandonment of New York’s Climate Law (CLCPA) mandates—including the mandate to direct 40% of the Climate Law’s benefits to disadvantaged communities—and its 2022 Scoping Plan.

What New York needs now, more than ever, is leadership with a determined approach to transitioning the NYS economy from fossil fuels to renewable energy generation and storage.

Here’s what we need to see in our state’s approach to energy planning and a future that serves working New Yorkers—not corporate polluters: 

Types of Energy

Electricity use is expected to grow substantially to power economic growth and expanded use of electric vehicles and heat pumps, even as energy efficiency lowers energy bills and reduces infrastructure costs. Reliable electricity supply requires the buildout of a diverse set of resources, including wind, solar, energy storage, but not slow, costly, speculative nuclear projects, or the reviving of aging or defunct combustion power plants. Instead, New York must rapidly expand renewable energy development statewide, which could be funded by making major corporate polluters pay via cap and invest. 

Affordable Energy

Low and moderate-income households are more likely to struggle to pay their utility bills, which is why New York must launch its cap and invest program. If designed right, Cap and Invest could deliver thousands of dollars in savings a year to working families.

Public Health

Slashing emissions in frontline communities of color must be at the forefront of NY’s energy future—our Climate Law demands it. We’re calling for cap and invest guardrails to prevent the program from creating “pollution hotspots” in frontline communities and mandate a high pollution price for corporate emissions in the state’s cap and invest program. At least 40% of the funds raised should go to disadvantaged communities.  

Jobs

To create and power the renewable energy economy our communities and our state will need for decades to come, we must create tens of thousands of union jobs—and accessible training pathways into those jobs—building green schools and homes, robust public transportation infrastructure, wind and solar energy transmission and storage, and much more. New York’s Cap and Invest program could help fund the clean energy economy we need to survive and thrive. 

In Summary

New Yorkers deserve a reliable, clean, and affordable energy system that reduces our reliance on fossil fuels and leads to a healthier environment for all—particularly NY’s frontline communities, families, and workers. 

All of this is within reach. We must launch NY’s Cap and Invest program to make polluters pay for their emissions and invest in making New York a place where everyone can breathe easy and thrive. And this State Energy Plan must not erase the 2022 Scoping Plan.

We can’t allow New York to move forward with dangerous, costly, and speculative energy schemes instead of the simple solutions we know work: building out wind and solar energy, making corporate polluters pay, and investing in community-level climate resilience and adaptation measures like improved public transportation infrastructure and weatherproofed, climate-ready homes and apartment buildings.  

Sincerely,

[Your Name]