Media Contact:
Jason Brown
BDC NY Communications Manager
jbrown@buildingdecarb.org
(917) 548-4451
NY Governor Hochul’s Building Decarbonization Proposals Would
Increase Energy Affordability, Lower Climate Emissions
Building Decarbonization Coalition Applauds FY 2025 New York State Executive Budget Proposals to Responsibly Reduce Energy Infrastructure Costs by Ending the 100 Foot Rule, Amending the Obligation to Serve Gas
ALBANY, N.Y. January 17, 2024 – Lisa Dix, New York Director for the Building Decarbonization Coalition provided the following statement in response to the release of New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s Fiscal Year 2025 Executive Budget:
“BDC celebrates the inclusion of the Affordable Gas Transition Act in Governor Hochul’s FY 2025 Executive Budget. This Act will make families’ energy bills more affordable while reducing dangerous climate emissions. Passage of the Act will set New York on the path for long-term energy affordability by empowering the Public Service Commission to ensure utilities invest in a managed, equitable transition to neighborhood-scale clean heating and cooling solutions like Thermal Energy Networks.
The Governor is doubling-down this session to make energy more affordable for New York’s most economically vulnerable residents while keeping the state on track to achieve 2 million climate-friendly homes by 2030 through investments in a new program to cap utility bills at 6% and existing programs like EmPower+.
The Governor’s budget includes several proposals that BDC and more than 200 other organizations from across the state have been calling for, including:
- Eliminating the 100 foot rule, which will end wasteful gas industry subsidies currently spent expanding the state’s outdated gas distribution system;
- Amending the obligation to serve gas and otherwise updating Public Service Law to empower the Public Service Commission to align utility plans with the Climate Act and enable the use of Thermal Energy Networks and other neighborhood-scale clean energy solutions to provide New Yorkers with affordable and reliable emissions-free heating and cooling for their homes and businesses; and
- Provisions to improve energy affordability for low-income households through access to renewable electricity, renewable heating, and energy savings, including a reappropriation of $200 million in funding for the EmPower+ low-income home retrofits program, as well as $50 million in funding to ensure that customers who fully electrify their homes through the EmPower+ program do not spend more than 6% of their income on their electric bills.
BDC looks forward to working with the Governor, the New York State Senate, and the New York State Assembly to see the Governor’s energy affordability and building decarbonization provisions included in the FY 2025 New York State Budget, including a provision to cap the cost of energy bills at 6% of a household’s income.”
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ABOUT THE BUILDING DECARBONIZATION COALITION
The Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC) unites stakeholders on a path to transform the nation’s buildings through clean energy, using policy, research, market development and public engagement. The BDC and its members are charting the course to eliminate fossil fuels in buildings to improve people’s health, cut climate and air pollution, prioritize high-road jobs, and ensure that our communities are more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Learn more at www.buildingdecarb.org