The policy placed the state on a path of reducing statewide greenhouse gas emissions of 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050. It also mandated significant investment in renewable energy infrastructure with the goal of making the grid 70% powered by renewable energy by 2030 and 100% by 2040.
However, while the CLCPA set highly ambitious goals and standards, it provided little guidelines for governments or actionable roadmaps for how those goals were to be achieved. Since the CLCPA has been on the books, there has been nothing to show for it except frustrated ratepayers and taxpayers, business organizations and even climate advocacy groups.
Some of the concerns raised about the CLCPA and the state’s approach to accomplishing its energy goals include the detrimental effect on energy bills, small businesses, schools and communities and the possibility that it could jeopardize the security and reliability of the state’s energy grid.
Other concerns include:
- The implementation of the Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) Rule: The regulation would require that medium and heavy-duty vehicles, including municipal plows, be manufactured as zero emission starting in 2025, with the goal of 100% of trucks over 8,500 pounds to be zero emission by 2045. However, groups like the New York State Automobile Dealers Association, Trucking Association of New York, New York State County Highway Association and local highway superintendents and departments and Utica Mack, Inc. have pushed back against this regulation because it would be detrimental to businesses and communities. Assemblywoman Buttenschon and I have introduced legislation that would delay the implementation of the ACT Rule to provide more time to fully understand the effect that this rule would have on industries and municipalities in the state. Assemblyman Brian Miller supports the bill and plans to cosponsor it in the Assembly.
- Regulations prohibiting new products and equipment that contain hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Banning these commonly used refrigerants will impose significant costs on New York businesses, including grocers, convenience stores and neighborhood bodegas, who will have to retrofit their facilities with new equipment in response to this mandate. Small business owners and groups representing larger businesses have warned the aggressive timetable to phase out hydrofluorocarbons could cripple businesses, icing out jobs and triggering price hikes on food items and other consumer products, as they attempt to comply with the costly mandate. The National Supermarket Association has said it could cost grocery stores between $300,000 to $1 million to eventually replace the cooling compressors that power refrigerators.
-
An electric school bus mandate: As a result of a mandate passed as part of the 2022-23 state budget, all new school buses purchased in New York must be zero-emission by 2027 and all school buses in operation must be electric by 2035. However, many school districts have shared concerns and challenges they are facing regarding their ability to comply with this mandate. Some of the challenges that stakeholders have identified include utility providers being unable to provide adequate power to districts; fiscal challenges related to school buses and charging infrastructure acquisition; and zero-emission school buses not being conducive to long bus routes or cold weather, among others. To help districts, Assemblyman Robert Smullen, R-C-Meco, and I have introduced legislation that would provide districts with the option of submitting an opt-out waiver that would permanently exempt them from the provisions required by the zero-emission school bus mandate.
While I appreciate and understand the need to embrace clean energy, the CLCPA, which I did not support, is full of unaffordable mandates and unrealistic and unreasonable deadlines that hurt struggling taxpayers, families, business owners and communities.
We need reasonable and realistic deadlines and expectations to reach the state’s energy goals, policies that improve the reliability and security of the grid and a diversified energy portfolio to best meet the needs of New Yorkers.
