A clean, resilient, and affordable energy future for all New Yorkers

Legislation

We focus on bills and budget investments that equitably right-size the gas system, remove barriers toward decarbonization, create opportunities for neighborhood-scale decarbonization solutions, and create thousands of good-paying union jobs.

Legislative Victories

Other Legislative Efforts

Neighborhood Scale Decarbonization

BDC advocates for neighborhood-scale decarbonization projects, including thermal energy networks. The landmark Utility Thermal Energy Network and Jobs Act (UTENJA), passed with BDC’s help in 2022, authorizes thermal energy network pilots in urban, rural, and suburban communities across New York State. New York’s utilities have proposed 11 pilots that leverage a variety of designs and ownership models. The goal for these pilots is to demonstrate utility thermal energy networks (UTENs) and inform a new utility regulatory framework. With our UpgradeNY partners, we also successfully advocated for the inclusion of $200 million in the NYS FY 26 budget that will jumpstart various other shovel-ready neighborhood-scale campus and municipal building decarbonization projects.

Regulation

BDC works with partners to ensure that New York’s state agencies—especially the Public Service Commission (PSC) and Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)—adopt building decarbonization regulations that implement the aggressive clean energy transition targets and goals in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) and the Climate Action Council’s Scoping Plan. This work includes educating state regulators and utilities about neighborhood-scale decarbonization and advocating for regulations and policies that advance the development of thermal energy networks at scale, deliver affordable energy efficiency and building electrification programs, and right-size the state’s methane gas system.

Affordability

One of BDC’s top priorities is advocating for an affordable and equitable energy transition. We work to grow the market for technologies like zero-emission heat pumps and induction stoves, and advocate for incentives so that these technologies reach those who need them most. With our coalition partners, we work deeply in the Energy Efficiency/Building Electrification Proceeding (EE/BE – formerly known as New Efficiency:New York or “NENY”) at the Public Service Commission (PSC), which has allocated $5 billion of ratepayer funding for critical energy efficiency and electrification programs in 2026 to 2030. This includes New York’s largest heat pump deployment program (NYS Clean Heat) and other programs that help fund critical weatherization and building envelope upgrades, with a focus on the needs of low and moderate-income households.

Coalition Building

We cannot do this important work alone. BDC works in coalition with other key New York stakeholders and partners to deliver results. We are both a participant and a leader in these spaces, convening policymakers, utilities, manufacturers, builders, designers, labor groups, environmental groups, and environmental justice organizations. Creating spaces where experts across industries work together to solve complex problems and design innovative policies to transition buildings off fossil fuels and onto clean energy is the key to our success.