Meet the Empower Kingston Interns – and the Local Contractors Introducing Them to the Field of Green Building Science
On September 8, Citizens for Local Power (CLP) welcomed eight interns to the launch of the first Empower Kingston Green Jobs Internship Program. The diverse group of interns are from Kingston, New Paltz, Rhinebeck, and Saugerties. Thanks to the group of committed local contractors and specialists who have shown them the ropes at their worksites and in online classes, each intern received a once-in-a-lifetime chance to explore the burgeoning field. For four weeks, the interns explored different facets of our fast-changing energy system, spending three days working on a job sites with a local contractor and two days attending classes.
Local contractors Anthony Aebi (Greenhill Contracting), Joe McDole (J’s Painting Service), building analyst Judith Karpova, and Marie Mazzucco (SunCommon) worked with CLP to plan the program. Scott and Marie Arnold (RYCOR) and Joe Gentile (Capitol Electric) joined them to provide onsite working experience in their specialties.
The interns earned $15/hour for their onsite and classroom work. They each received tools and steel-toed boots for protection. Funding for the program was provided by an anonymous donor.
At the end of the program, having gotten a solid overview of the field, the interns are ready to decide on their next steps, with the advice and support of Ulster County, the Green Careers Academy at SUNY Ulster, BOCES, and Cornell Cooperative Extension. "Having the opportunity to rotate with a number of contractors enabled us to get a broad-ranging experience, and was useful for discovering the right area of Green Jobs to work in," an intern said.
The City of Kingston Plans to Reach 100% Clean Energy Citywide
The City of Kingston is already a leader in responding to climate change by reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions. The next challenge, and it’s a big one, is to lift up the whole city, including its residents and businesses, to the same standard. Over the past year, a national consulting firm (Cadmus) and a national laboratory (NREL) studied the existing conditions and determined that the city can indeed meet or exceed New York State’s energy goals, including reducing energy usage 40% from 1990 levels by 2030.
Measures that were suggested include
adopting higher standards for building construction;
offering financial or tax benefits to stimulate green purchases;
building more solar on city-owned and private property;
making the city’s energy sources even greener;
creating a Community Choice Aggregation program to secure cheaper, greener power for all residents and businesses that do not opt out; and
retrofitting older buildings to make them more energy efficient, economical, and healthy.
The next step for the city is the creation of a new Climate Action Plan. The Climate Smart Commission is creating an Advisory Council to guide this work, and has adopted a target date of September 2021 for completion. The electrical energy portion of this plan will fall within the scope of CLP's Empower Kingston campaign, and will continue to flesh out as the Climate Action Plan moves forward as a whole. In addition to electrical energy and heating, the plan will cover resiliency, waste, transportation, and related subjects. The Office of Sustainability seeks community input at all phases of the project and will be calling meetings and inviting community participation in other ways.
Empower Kingston is a community-based campaign to transition to 100% renewable energy citywide. Together we envision a city where we get our electricity from local, renewable sources, our homes and buildings are energy-efficient and healthy to live in, and people with diverse backgrounds and skills can find well-paying jobs supporting and advancing this energy transition.
CLP, which has been meeting with leading stakeholders in Kingston communities over the past year, is seeking community participation in the framework of the Empower Kingston campaign, including by meeting with groups that have been involved in the work thus far to ensure a continued seat at the table during this essential time of goal-setting and strategizing. If you live or work in Kingston, please keep an eye out for our community survey, a link to which will be landing in physical mailboxes across the city in mid-November. These survey results will be another avenue of community input to direct our campaign priorities. If you have questions or would like to be more involved, please click down below.
Your Voice Matters
Central Hudson Rate Case Has Started! Your Voice Matters
Three years ago, Citizens for Local Power, working with other representatives of rate-payers and the public, helped keep Central Hudson’s basic service rate – the amount you pay, per utility meter, before you turn on a single light bulb or use a watt of electricity – from going up. In fact, we helped lower it, for the first time ever! This was a real achievement. However, basic service charge went up in the second and third years of the rate period (by 2% in 2018 and 4% in 2019), so as a result, CLP did not support the final agreement.
Now, Central Hudson’s new rate case is underway. It launched in August and will set the utility rates for electricity and gas for a period of one to three years. In rate cases, public involvement really does make a difference. CLP has joined as a party and will fight to keep bills from going up. We would also love to see some gains in areas like funding for home retrofits and new ways to benefit low- and middle-income customers and help them benefit from the transition to clean energy. Please consider becoming a party to the case so you can make your views known and help negotiate a better outcome for rate-payers. It will also be crucial for as many people as possible to testify at two virtual public hearings scheduled for Wednesday, October 28, at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.
For more information click down below
Help make Polluters Pay for Green Transportation
Citizens for Local Power supports a new campaign called “NY for TCI,” to encourage Governor Cuomo to commit to New York's implementation of an ambitious and equitable Transportation and Climate Initiative with neighboring states by the end of 2020. The campaign aims to reduce transportation emissions and support the transition off fossil fuels in New York and the Northeast.
Please visit https://nyfortci.org/letter/ to sign a letter to Governor Cuomo urging his leadership on TCI. And if your organization or business would like to endorse the TCI campaign, please email betta@nyforcleanpower.org
TCI is a “cap and invests” program that aims to make polluters pay and will use the funds to support the transition to clean energy. It could raise as much as $500 million to $1.5 billion/year depending on where states set the emission cap (a lower/more ambitious cap would generate more funding), and use the money for clean transportation projects in NY. Projects could include bike lanes, wider/improved sidewalks, transit-oriented and mixed-use development, along with support for additional public transit, EVs (paratransit, charging stations, solar panels to charge vehicles, etc.), or investments to improve climate resiliency of roads, bridges, railroads, etc. By leading on TCI, we can accelerate our state’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and build back stronger with good family-sustaining green jobs while protecting the long-term health and well-being of our communities.
Regional Renewable Energy Implementation Planning
Regional Renewable Energy Implementation Planning (RREIP):
Citizens for Local Power, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Scenic Hudson, Sustainable Hudson Valley, and many others are working with the Mid-Hudson Regional Sustainability Coalition Energy Working Group, hosted by the Hudson Valley Regional Council, to create an implementation plan to achieve the goals of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) in the 7-County Mid-Hudson Region. A RREIP Summary and Backgrounder are in progress to define this groundbreaking roadmap. We are also coordinating with a similar initiative, the Long Island Solar Roadmap, led by The Nature Conservancy. A variety of stakeholders, including the four utilities, renewable energy developers, municipalities and others are working to identify areas of agreement and areas which could benefit from a consensus-building process. If you would like a copy of the Draft RREIP Backgrounder, please contact mannajo@clearwater.org. See also: Mid-Hudson Regional Renewable Energy Forum and video.
Coalition to Stop the Proposed Danskammer Gas-Fired Expansion
In direct contradiction to the goals of CLCPA, this plant would worsen air-quality in Newburgh, an already compromised environmental justice community, and exacerbate climate change. 25 municipalities have passed resolutions opposing this foolhardy project to burn fracked methane in an expanded facility on a flood-prone peninsula on the west shore of the Hudson. These include:
· Towns of Esopus, Gardiner, Hurley, City of Kingston, Town of Marbletown, Town and Village of New Paltz, Towns of Rosendale, Saugerties, Cornwall, City of Newburgh, City of Hudson, the City of Beacon, Town of Clinton, the City of Poughkeepsie, Village of Cold Spring, Town of Philipstown, Village of Suffern, Town of Greenough, Village of Hastings-on-Hudson, Village of Larchmont, Town of Mamaroneck, City of Mount Vernon, Town of New Castle, and the City of Peekskill. The Westchester County Legislators unanimously signed a letter of opposition and is now considering a resolution as well.
· We are currently working with the Towns of Fishkill, Hyde Park, Lagrange, Pleasant Valley, Putnam Valley, Rhinebeck, Wappingers Falls, and Woodstock, the Villages of Wappingers Falls, and Nyack, and the Rockland County Legislature -- and would welcome your help!
· More than 150 elected officials have signed a letter to Governor Cuomo opposing the Danskammer expansion, If you know an elected official that hasn’t yet signed on, please urge them to do so, whether or not their municipality has passed a resolution. We are developing a general petition as well.
Say NO to any new fossil fuel infrastructure! For more information see the Stop Danskammer Coalition.