Letter calls for phasing out fossil fuel use
Kingston Mayor Steve Noble is among a number of Mid-Hudson Valley officials calling on Andrew Cuomo to act.
Mayor Steve Noble is among a number of local officials urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to ramp up efforts to phase out fossil fuels and implement renewable energy initiatives.
The local officials made their request in a letter sponsored by a group called Elected Officials to Protect New York.
Noble was among 15 local politicians in the area and more than 100 statewide who signed the letter. Among them were county legislators and town officials from Ulster, Columbia and Dutchess counties and New Paltz Village Mayor Tim Rogers.
The letter points out what the group says have been Cuomo successes in battling climate change including “banning fracking, setting energy efficiency standards, contracting for offshore wind, land-based wind, and solar energy, developing electric vehicle infrastructure, and setting an ambitious plan to transition to 70 percent renewable energy by 2030 with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).
“In order to meet these goals, we urge you and your administration to update and change state policies to phase out the use of fossil fuels and ramp up renewable energy and energy efficiency,” the letter says. “New York state is now positioned to become a national climate leader.”
Specifically, the local officials requested the following steps to meet state goals:
• Significantly increase state funding, support, procurement, and permitting to deploy large-scale renewable energy across the state.
• Invest in large numbers of good, clean energy jobs in low-income communities and communities of color by ensuring that distributed solar is deployed in underserved communities; that large-scale renewable energy benefits host communities; and that environmental justice issues are prioritized as part of the clean energy transition, including green job training programs.
• Increase investments in programs, local governments, and communitybased organizations to support institutional, business, municipal, and community efforts to rapidly deploy renewable energy, energy efficiency, heat pumps, electric vehicle charging stations, and other needed infrastructure, and create incentives for communities to welcome and host gridscale renewable energy projects.
• Reject permits for all new fossil fuel infrastructure, including new gasfired power plants and small gas pipelines for residential gas expansion, and ensure a swift move off natural gas, including a new rulemaking to prohibit utilities from investing ratepayer funds in gas projects.
• Work with utility providers to create a more resilient 21st-century electricity grid to handle increased renewable interconnections, electric vehicles, and electrification.