Globalwarming ahot topic at conservation land summit

SARATOGA SPRINGS >> New York’s clean energy goals are critical to helping prevent climate change and are setting the standard for other states, too.

That’s what speakers said during one of the most heavily attended sessions at the three-day New York State Land Conservation Summit that concluded Friday at the Gideon Putnam Hotel with nearly 350 people on hand.

The event was organized by the Open Space Institute and Land Trust Alliance in partnership with dozens of other groups such as the American Farmland Trust. The Alliance and Farmland Trust are national organizations whose state offices are in Saratoga Springs.

“The key is to get off fossil fuels,” said Eleanor Stein, who teaches the “Law of Climate Change” at Albany Law School and SUNY Albany. “Burning fossil fuels is the cause for rising carbon emissions.”

In December, Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for a new Clean Energy Standard that requires half of all electricity consumed in New York by 2030 to come from renewable sources such as hydro, wind and solar power. This would double the current level, 25 percent, most of which is hydro.

The initiative is one part of Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision program, which was developed after Superstorm Sandy, a major wake-up call that exposed vulnerabilities and shortcomings in

the state’s energy supply, transmission and infrastructure network.

Community solar projects, in both rural areas and urban rooftops, are one way of meeting the state’s goal along with things such as off-shore wind farms.

“We really need to get projects proposed and built,” said Anne Reynolds, Clean Energy Alliance New York executive director. “That is not easy to do in New York. It is a very tough place to do business.”

Approvals are quite often timeconsuming and difficult to obtain, she said.

“This 50 percent goal is very ambitious,” Reynolds said. “Getting to 50 percent is going to be tough.”

At present, the directive is not mandatory, although supporters are hopeful the state Legislature will take such action.

The NY-Sun Incentive Program has prompted major investments in New York’s booming solar power industry, which grew 575 percent from 2012-15 with more than 18,250 projects installed last year alone. The industry employsmore than 8,250 people in New York, the fourth-highest number in the country.

“This has had a big economic impact,” said Max Joel, community solar program manager at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

However, there are also concerns about the enticements solar firms are offering farmers and other land owners. In recent months, hundreds of Capital Region residents have received letters from solar companies seeking to lease land for large solar panel installations.

“Like any consumer product, buyer beware,” Joel said. “Take a serious look at the contract.”

Recently, Cornell Cooperative Extension hosted a program to inform and educate people about such offers.

Attorney Fiona Farrell of Stillwater, who focuses on farmissues, said solar companies are racing to sign people to contracts before their competitors do.

“It’s a bit of a land rush,” she said. “Your land could potentially be tied up for 40-½ years. This is definitely an occasion to be careful. I would urge people not to sign these contracts. They give solar power a bad reputation. They’re too unbalanced in favor or the solar developer and not the landowners.”

However, it’s imperative for the state, the U.S. and world to address climate change while there’s still time, said Joseph Martens, former state Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner. He showed a series of photos showing the aftermath of cataclysmic natural disasters -- Hurricane Irene, Tropical StormLee, SuperstormSandy -- that cost billions of dollars in damage and cleanup. Martens said he believes this series of storms was directly related to globalwarming. Many scientists say the planet is headed for even worse, irreversible trends if temperatures rise another 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit, he said.

The Paris Summit on Climate Change, in December, brought together 195 countries, which agreed in principle on steps to prevent climate change.

“Paris was progress,” Martens said. “It was a good step. However, many scientists are saying it is too late.”