New York Takes the Lead in Sustainable Development Posturing
In an address last week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo laid out plans for his “Green New Deal,” which includes aggressive mandates and goals for clean energy, money for offshore wind development, and much more. The Green New Deal is included in New York’s 2019 Executive Budget. The plan provides for a transition to clean energy that spurs growth of the green economy and prioritizes the needs of low to moderate income New Yorkers, according to a press release issued by NYSERDA.
The Green New Deal will statutorily mandate New York's power be 100 percent carbon-free by 2040, the most aggressive goal in the United States and five years ahead of a target recently adopted by California. The cornerstone of this new mandate is a significant increase of New York's successful Clean Energy Standard mandate from 50 percent to 70 percent renewable electricity by 2030.
"Climate change is a reality, and the consequences of delay are a matter of life and death. We know what we must do. Now we have to have the vision, the courage, and the competence to get it done. While the federal government shamefully ignores the reality of climate change and fails to take meaningful action, we are launching the first-in-the-nation Green New Deal to seize the potential of the clean energy economy, set nation's most ambitious goal for carbon-free power, and ultimately eliminate our entire carbon footprint." Governor Cuomo said.
The Green New Deal will create the State's first statutory Climate Action Council, comprised of the heads of relevant State agencies and other workforce, environmental justice, and clean energy experts to develop a comprehensive plan to make New York carbon neutral by significantly and cost-effectively reducing emissions from all major sources, including electricity, transportation, buildings, industry, commercial activity, and agriculture.
Benefits of having a Battery connected to your Solar system
With electric rates continuing to rise during peak hours it’s becoming more and more important to have a battery connected to a residential solar system. What a battery can do is charge itself during low demand times and discharge itself during peak hours when each kilowatt consumed is two to three times as costly. This will make sure that all electricity that is used from the grid is as cheap as possible. A battery will add around $8-$10k more to the system cost but over the thirty to forty year life of the system it will save you much more!
PG&E and Chapter 11: What Does it Mean for You?
Following the California wildfires, PG&E is now filing for bankruptcy due to the prospect of billions of dollars in damages to their infrastructure. Don’t worry too much, though. The company will continue to run as normal while the courts decide what to do with all the incurred debt. If PG&E is forced to borrow big sums of money to fix the problem, then we could see more rate hikes to our gas and electric services. For example, we’re still paying for PG&E’s 2001 bankruptcy filing. If you look closely at your PG&E bill under “DWR Bond Charge,” you’ll see it.
The main takeaway? It’s valuable to be in control of our energy independence as much as possible. Otherwise, we remain at the whim of a company that has been quite unstable. If we look at electric rates over the last thirty years, there’s about a 5% average cost increase every year, and that really adds up over time.
Many homeowners and businesses have decided to break free of these rate hikes and become more energy independent by installing LED lighting, more efficient appliances, and a solar system. By taking actions like this, we can save ourselves thousands of dollars in the long run and reduce the amount of damage being done to the earth through the extraction of fossil fuels. It’s a great time to GO SOLAR now and TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR UTILITY BILL.
by Oliver Canbazoglu