Lowering Utility Costs and Developing Green Energy
New Yorkers are facing rising heating, electricity, and gas prices for a number of reasons, including our overreliance on fossil fuels, and oil and gas company price gouging. New York State and utility companies must address the crushing costs and debt consumers are experiencing. We must ensure energy is independent from corporate interests to bring down costs for working families and to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.
To crush rising costs of energy:
Send a $200 rebate check to every low and middle-income NY tax filer and their dependent. Governor Hochul could allocate at least $1.25 billion for helping low-income New Yorkers in arrears (just 10% of the American Rescue Plan money that New York received from the federal government).
Extend the moratorium on utility shutoffs. This is particularly important to prevent elderly residents from suffering heatstroke during the coming summer months.
Call on utility companies to forgive utility bill debt, given the tremendous impacts of the pandemic and crisis in Ukraine
Create a state-level independent utility consumer advocate, which would help address all of these challenges in three ways. Governor Hochul’s veto of this office was a significant mistake that has continued to hurt working families. First, a consumer advocate would be able to fight for New Yorkers who file a complaint against utility companies for rising utility bills and unfair penalties. Second, a well-resourced consumer advocate could conduct research into the practices of utility companies and the distribution of utility debt in our state. Finally, a consumer advocate could serve as a zealous advocate for New York families in policy discussions about whether to approve rate increases in the first instance.
Provide tax credits and state subsidies for energy efficiency retrofits to low and moderate-income households, which would immediately lower energy costs for both homeowners and tenants.
To bring clean energy to New York:
Ensure New York eventually exercises actual control over utilities so that they serve the people’s interests, not the interests of corporate backers, including ending the practice of insider negotiations where climate, environmental and consumer concerns are pitted against the needs of utilities for greater revenue.
People, not corporate shareholders, should have a say over their utilities. Long-term, we should move towards an energy system that is 100% renewable, democratically controlled, and publicly owned. One key step towards public power would be to pass the NY Build Public Renewables Act, which would help expand the ability of the state to own and generate renewable power, as well as provide renewable energy directly to state and municipal-leased and -owned properties and transportation.
Electricity-generating plants that rely on fossil fuels are a major cause of public health issues and a contributor to the climate crisis through their large greenhouse gas emissions. We should pass the Clean Futures Act, which would prohibit the development of any new major electric generating facilities that would be powered in whole or in part by fossil fuels.
Make multi-billion dollar investments annually in our energy infrastructure to scale renewables by more than eight times their current market size by 2030.
Implement a moratorium on environmentally damaging Proof-of-Work bitcoin mining in the state and ensure a rigorous study of the environmental impacts of existing and potential future cryptocurrency mining operations.
Ensure the agencies we oversee are doing everything in their power to ensure they’re reducing carbon emissions. From requiring state vehicles to be electric to assisting and funding local governments to reduce the carbon footprint in their operations, the state can lead by example in getting all New Yorkers to work to reduce carbon emissions. All state facilities can and should be rapidly transitioned to run on clean energy rather than fossil fuels, and we will pass the Renewable Capitol Act, which would mandate several state facilities in downtown Albany, including the State Capitol and Empire State Plaza, be powered by renewable energy. We will ensure that state agencies do not approve new fossil fuel facilities, and establish a plan to rapidly shut down all existing fossil fuels facilities in the state.