From the Office of Assemblyman Phil Palmesano
Small Step in right direction; much more needs to be done
Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R,C-Corning), the ranking member of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, is reacting to changes to the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) that were made as part of the Transportation, Economic Development and Environmental Conservation (TED) budget bill. Specifically, the changes include:
- · Changing the methodology for carbon emissions evaluation from a 20-year time frame to a 100-year time frame
- · Requiring the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to create rules and regulations designed to achieve a 60% reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2040 (currently 70% by 2030)
- · Directing DEC to consider the feasibility of a market-based Cap and Invest Program
- · Requiring DEC to assess the affordability, feasibility and economic growth of the CLCPA
Palmesano says that while these changes are a step in the right direction, they do not go far enough, and the CLCPA should be repealed.
“I’m glad to see the governor and my Democrat colleagues have finally realized what our Republican Assembly Conference and I have been saying for years, that the CLCPA goals and mandates are unaffordable, unreliable and unrealistic. It has been designed to dismantle the reliable natural gas infrastructure supply and delivery system. It has been designed to eliminate consumer choice on how you heat your home, cook your food, power your building and the vehicle you drive. Let me be perfectly clear: while these changes are a small step in the right direction, more has to be done. With estimates now showing the total cost of implementing the CLCPA could exceed more than $1/2 trillion, New Yorkers deserve a full independent cost and feasibility study to better understand the economic, energy reliability and affordability impact these mandates will have on families, businesses and ratepayers across the state. I will continue to push for both a comprehensive cost and feasibility study and the full repeal of the CLCPA to help protect energy affordability, reliability, feasibility, fuel diversity and energy choice, because New Yorkers deserve nothing less,” said Palmesano.
