State’s Climate Plan Will Boost Economy and Quality of Life
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
By Anshul Gupta
The most recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, prepared and reviewed by thousands of scientists and experts from 195 countries, spell a grim climate prognosis after decades of inaction by governments caused in large part by the well-documented campaigns of denial, doubt and delay by the fossil fuel industry.
Meanwhile, climate deterioration marked by worsening fires, floods, droughts, storms and extreme-weather events has tracked worse than scientists’ predictions, and barring immediate concerted efforts, our world could be unrecognizable by the end of the century.
The end of the century is within the lifetime of a child born today.
Recognizing the shrinking window to make amends, governments worldwide have been spurred into action in recent years, and New York State – the world’s 11th largest economy – passed a landmark climate law in 2019. Soon afterward, the fossil fuel industry and its allies launched a progressively intensifying campaign to malign the law by exploiting our innate fears of change and the unknown.
Many New Yorkers are being incessantly reminded that the state’s climate action plan threatens their energy reliability and affordability. There are specious warnings about out-of-control energy prices when the prime cause of our energy-price woes is our reliance on fossil fuels, which leaves us at the mercy of unpredictable international geopolitics.
Burning fossil fuels in buildings for space and water heating is New York’s largest source of carbon pollution, and therefore, is a major target of disinformation. Forgoing gas connections in new construction in favor of highly efficient and reliable cold-climate heat pumps is a goal that cannot be met, some have opined; never mind that a bulk of Westchester County has had a gas moratorium for over three years.
Not only did the sky not fall, the county experienced robust population and economic growth outpacing the rest of the state. As a bonus, we built some fabulous modern, healthy all-electric homes and buildings and showed what is possible when we leave fossil fuels and closed-mindedness behind.
Fears of grid capacity and power failures are often raised. But our electric grid is stressed in the summer while the heat pumps add to the winter electricity demand. Major utilities like LIPA and Con Edison support all-electric new construction to begin an orderly transition to a pollution-free buildings sector while our energy infrastructure evolves in tandem. Even heating by fossil fuels doesn’t work during power failures without expensive generators.
A look at poweroutage.us would reveal that beyond severe weather events, power outages are uncommon. However, almost every winter day, HVAC technicians and plumbers crisscross towns and villages all over the state, rushing to rescue hundreds of customers with heat outages from broken boilers and furnaces.
There are good reasons for the business community and the business councils to break with the fossil fuel industry in support of New York’s climate plan, including its building decarbonization provisions. New gas hookups add upward pressure to both the supply and delivery prices for existing residential and commercial customers. Due to generous tax credits from the federal Inflation Reduction Act, the more heat pumps we install, the fewer tax dollars will flow out of the state. On the other hand, burning fossil fuels that New York doesn’t produce drains funds from the state.
A climate-driven energy transition is an engine of economic growth. According to the 2022 Clean Energy Industry Report, energy-efficiency construction and electrification is the largest segment of New York’s clean energy jobs that grew 13 percent over five years to 165,000, compared to an 11 percent decline to 141,000 in conventional energy over the same period.
We don’t need to look beyond Westchester for evidence. After prototyping its cost-effective method for installing geothermal heat pumps, a team at Alphabet’s innovation lab X chose New York to start a business due to its market potential and supportive policies. Dandelion Energy, now headquartered in Mount Kisco, has never stopped hiring since installing its first system in 2018 and has expanded into three neighboring states. Each year, its systems enable hundreds of new families to start heating and cooling their homes without paying astronomical utility bills or polluting their neighborhoods.
Powerful polluting and profiteering interests hell-bent on stalling our progress toward a healthier, sustainable energy future have been telling us to slow down for decades. We can no longer afford to heed them, because that’s exactly what has brought us to a point where a transition with speed and scale is our only option for leaving a livable climate for our children and grandchildren.
Anshul Gupta is a research scientist and a member of the Westchester chapter of the Climate Reality Project
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