New York Governor Presents Progressive Green Building Competition

Governor Andrew Cuomo created this “Buildings of Excellence” competition and it will have three rounds of providing $10 million with up to $1 million per project. The initiative aims to advance the design, construction, and operation of green buildings in the state. This is mainly a pilot to show how advanced green building design can be adopted into the New York State Energy Conservation and Construction Code. Governor Cuomo said, "The time for addressing climate change is now, and today we are doubling down on our commitment to lead the way with a revolutionary path toward carbon-free buildings. The development of low- to zero-carbon buildings will create healthier living spaces and communities for all New Yorkers, while driving down harmful emissions from one of our highest contributing sectors - our building stock - and pushing us forward on our path to carbon neutrality." With New Yorkers paying around $35 billion annually on electricity and heating this initiative will strive to reduce consumer energy bills while at the same time creating a healthier and more affordable New York.

Neighbors May Soon Help Power Each Other

The new energy paradigm beginning to rear its head is for residential renewable energy systems to sell excess energy they produce to their neighbors. Utility companies now buy excess residential energy for little or nothing so a new system is being born. Technology is reaching a certain point where residential renewable energy systems can interact with the grid in such a way that whenever there’s high demand, a shortage, or a spike it will be responded to in an effective way automatically. If the utility companies want to stay in business this technology needs to be implemented quickly because more and more households are simply going off the grid due to the increasing benefits.

PG&E Offering $800 Electric Vehicle Rebate

Right now you can receive an $800 rebate from PG&E under the right circumstances for having an electric vehicle. As long as you’re an active client of PG&E, own or lease an eligible plug-in electric vehicle, and have your car’s registration up to date you are eligible for this rebate. However, PG&E does say funds are limited and it’s first come serve so it’s hard to say how long this will last. Also, you can only get one rebate per car in its lifetime so you may wanna save it for another time if you’re not strapped for cash right now. This rebate comes from a State of California program called the Low Carbon Fuel Standard. The goal of this program is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by encouraging the adoption of electric vehicles. Clean electricity used to fuel electric vehicles has helped reduce green house gas emissions by 66 percent so far in California!