Clean Energy Calendar

In 2020 the Public Service Commission launched a Gas Planning Proceeding. The goals: to calibrate gas supply to avoid disruptions to service and direct the gas utilities to plan to meet the emissions reductions required by the CLCPA. Good planning is essential to ensure a smooth energy transition, strategically right-size the gas system, ensure that the right investments are made at the appropriate times, and to save ratepayers money. But so far, the gas planning has not yielded the necessary outcomes. Now in 2026, there's an opportunity to reimagine gas planning and optimize our investments. Featuring speakers: Meagan Burton, Earthjustice Kristina Persaud, Advanced Energy United Josh Berman, Sierra Club

In 2019, New York made bold, legally binding commitments to take on the climate crisis, but what happens if we were to backtrack? As pressure mounts to weaken or delay key climate policies, this teach-in will explain what’s actually at stake for New Yorkers. We will discuss rising energy costs, public health issues, and environmental justice concerns, and explore how rolling back climate protections doesn’t just slow progress, but deepens our reliance on fossil fuels and other polluting technologies, locking us into decades of price volatility and putting our most vulnerable communities’ health at risk and subjecting us to skyrocketing bills. Speakers: Liz Moran, New York Policy Advocate, Earthjustice Laura Haight, Policy Advisor, Partnership for Policy Integrity Eric Walker, Energy Justice Senior Policy Manager, WE ACT for Environmental Justice NYCP is a project of Catskill Mountainkeeper Inc.

New Yorkers for Clean Power and esteemed speakers to learn more about the draft State Energy Plan, what's in it, what's missing, and how to take action before the October 6th deadline. Our panelists will address key highlights and recommendations for the building, power and transportation sectors respectively. Our speakers: Josh Berman, Senior Attorney of Sierra Club Environmental Law Program Marguerite Wells, Executive Director of Alliance for Clean Energy New York Jaqi Cohen, Director of Climate and Equity Policy Tri-State Transportation Campaign

In this virtual teach-in we address how the Clean Air Initiative can ensure the CLCPA’s environmental justice and greenhouse gas reduction goals are backed by enforceable regulations with mandatory emission limits on New York’s top-emitting sectors, buildings and transportation. We walk you through how to use New York’s official public comment tool to weigh in on the recently proposed Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule, which requires corporate polluters to tell us what they are dumping into our air (really important as EPA has signaled that it will end this requirement at the federal level) Speakers: Julie Tighe, President NYLCV & NYLCVEF Eric Walker, Energy Justice Senior Policy Manager, WE ACT for Environmental Justice Moderated by Betta Broad, Campaign Director, New Yorkers for Clean Power & Association for Energy Affordability We dive into: The latest with NY’s cap-and-invest program, now called the Clean Air Initiative and why it’s our best path to regulate and phase out emissions from buildings and transportation. The health and economic benefits of cap-and-invest + the $1 billion Sustainable Future Fund How to show up for upcoming public hearings, submit comments, and help push for the reporting rule that would mandate fossil fuel providers to report their GHG impacts, and call for the full release of regulations to actually cap GHG and copollutant emissions.

New York has set an ambitious climate plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but false solutions threaten to derail progress. In this teach-in, we will examine three problematic solutions: so-called "renewable natural gas," hydrogen blending for buildings, and carbon capture and storage, all of which could impede real climate action. Guest Speakers: ● Hillary Aidun, Earthjustice ● Erin Murphy, Environmental Defense Fund ● Carolyn Raffensperger, The Science and Environmental Health Network ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hillary Aidun, Senior Associate Attorney Earthjustice A senior associate attorney in the Northeast Regional Office. Hillary works to advance environmental justice in the northeast region and advocates for meaningful and equitable implementation of New York’s climate law in state court and before administrative agencies. Before joining Earthjustice Hillary was a fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, where she worked on expanding renewable energy resources, challenging federal regulatory rollbacks, and tracking New York State climate law. Erin Murphy, Senior Attorney, Energy Markets & Utility Regulation Areas of expertise: Natural gas and electricity market design, natural gas policy, utility regulation. Erin represents EDF in regulatory proceedings involving the design of wholesale and retail natural gas markets, seeking to facilitate the clean energy transformation. She advocates before state public utility commissions for gas supply planning mechanisms to prevent unneeded long-term investments in gas infrastructure, and for utility adoption of programs to reduce methane emissions from gas distribution networks. Erin also advocates before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for new and better ways to facilitate renewable energy integration and harmonize the wholesale natural gas and electricity markets. Carolyn Raffensperger, Executive Director Environmental Health Network. While working as an archaeologist in the desert Southwest of the U.S., she was enchanted by the beauty of the landscape and horrified at the environmental threats posed by dams, mining and toxic waste disposal. She left archaeology to work for the Sierra Club in Illinois. The desire to protect the rivers, prairie and desert led her to law school. Her graduate school training in archaeology and her law school education provides the tools Carolyn needs to serve her clients—the future generations of all species.

On Thursday, September 12, 2024, the NYS Chapters Coalition hosted an engaging panel discussion on the growing issue of climate anxiety and how it affects people across different age groups and professions. The event featured expert insights…

Did you know that New York has five BILLION dollars to spend on building energy efficiency and electrification over the next five years? In this NYCP Teach-In, we took a deep dive into the New Efficiency New York (NENY) Proceeding, which will determine how this money will be spent on building energy efficiency and building electrification in NYS from 2026-2030. Our speakers included: - Juan Pablo Velez, founder and executive director of the think tank, Win Climate presented his recent report: New Efficiency New York, an Appraisal of Past and Proposed Spendingt detailing how utilities and NYSERDA managed the first traunch of NENY money and how they propose to spend the next one. Read the report here: https://www.switch.box/neny - Rebekah Morris-Gonzalez, Director of Climate Initiatives, at the Pratt Center for Community Development. Who presented on her report titled: "How NYSERDA's Empower+ Program Shortchanges Low-Income Residents." Read the report here: https://prattcenter.net/uploads/0124/1706652850133244/Empower_Brief_Final.pdf

NYCP's November 2023 Teach-In featured the latest on efforts to decarbonize New York's power sector with clean energy. Find out what recent developments may mean for our state's goal of 70% renewable energy by 2030 and what you can do to make NY's climate plan real. Our speakers included: ⚡️ Anne Reynolds, Executive Director of Alliance for Clean Energy New York and Climate Action Council member who provided updates on meeting the Climate Act's "70x'30" targets. ⚡️ Luke Falk, COO of Clean Path NY for energyRe, who presented the current status of the project and the critical role of transmission in the clean energy transition. ⚡️ Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, who discussed the fight to build out offshore wind on Long Island — recent victories, setbacks, and what comes next. Plus, we heard from Dan Haas of Friends of Columbia Solar on how we can take action to support large-scale solar on the ground. Use this tool to take action and support the Sheperd's Run project: https://p2a.co/rO1qyXM

New York’s Climate Act recognizes that climate change doesn’t affect all communities equally. The Climate Act charged the Climate Justice Working Group (CJWG) with the development of criteria to identify disadvantaged communities (DACs) to ensure that frontline and otherwise underserved communities benefit from the state’s historic transition to cleaner, greener sources of energy, reduced pollution and cleaner air, and economic opportunities. A draft of the DAC criteria was released in late 2021 and is now open for public comments through Thursday, July 7th. It is important to weigh in on this aspect of the Scoping Plan to ensure no one gets left behind during New York's transition to a clean energy economy. This NYCP Teach-In featured: - Sameer Ranade, Climate Justice Advisor, Climate Action Council of NYSERDA - Jen Metzger, NYCP Senior Policy Advisor and former NY State Senator - Sonal Jessel, Director of Policy, WE ACT for Environmental Justice This event was moderated by Ibrahim Abdul-Matin and Betta Broad.

Watch this NYCP Teach-In about the climate impacts of New York's waste and the recommendations of the Climate Action Council's Draft Scoping Plan! The Teach-In features a discussion with environmental policy expert Judith Enck, President of Beyond Plastics and former EPA Regional Administrator under President Obama, and Jen Metzger, PhD, New Yorkers for Clean Power Senior Policy Advisor and former NYS State Senator. Hosted by NYCP Campaign Director Betta Broad. To access the speaker slides and Q&A doc for this event, please visit our Teach-In Archive at https://nyforcleanpower.org/teach-in-archive/

Join New Yorkers for Clean Power to learn what NYS needs to do in order to ensure our electric grid is powered by renewable sources and how we can decarbonize our buildings and transportation so they are running off of that renewable electricity. After this presentation by the NYCP Team, you will have the opportunity to ask questions and tell us if you would like someone from NYCP to give this presentation to your community group/classroom/organization etc. - reach out to us at info@nyforcleanpower.org Speakers: NYCP Team - Michaela Ciovacco, Program Coordinator - Gregory Simpson, Senior Clean Power Fellow - Jen Metzger, Former State Senator & Senior Policy Advisor - Cal Trumann, Climate Education Clean Power Fellow - Andrew Pezzullo, Large-scale Renewables Clean Power Fellow -Betta Broad, Campaign Director

Our state's regulatory processes are not taking all the factors into account when deciding the cost benefit ratios of fossil fuel & renewable infrastructure! Learn what needs to be considered by industry experts. You'll have the opportunity to ask questions and take action for a better BCA! Visit our take-action page to improve NY's BCA: tinyurl.com/bcacomment Speakers include: Sonal Jessel, the Director of Policy at WE ACT for Environmental Justice Andy Frank, the Founder & President of Sealed and Strategic Advisory Group member to inform the Building Electrification Process for the Department of Public Service John Ciovacco, the President of Aztech Geothermal and Strategic Advisory Group member to inform the Building Electrification Process for the DPS Jessica Azulay, the Executive Director of Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE) and active party member in numerous rate cases across NYS.

Learn how we can meet our energy needs across NYS with clean heating and cooling technology! Speakers will discuss shared geothermal loop systems, thermal infrastructure ownership options and how we can finance getting to scale. Sign up for Renewable Heat Now's email list for notifications on how to take action for clean energy infrastructure! https://renewableheatnow.org/join/ Speakers include: Cullen Kasunic from BlocPower Zeyneb Magavi & Audrey Schulman from HEET (Home Energy Efficiency Team) Stuart Yanow from Orca energy Owen Brady from National Grid

Join New Yorkers for Clean Power and United Solar Energy Supporters to learn about the new siting law for large-scale renewable energy projects in New York: Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth & Community Benefit Act Speakers: Mike Bader - Business Manager at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for local 86 Harrison Watkins - Research Director at the NYS Laborers Organizing Fund Daniel Spitzer is an attorney and co-leader of Clean Energy Practice at Hodgson Russ LLP. Dan will summarize the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth & Community Benefit Act that recently passed in NYS which dictates how large-scale renewable energy projects are sited, and he’ll describe how this new law is different from the Article 10 siting and permitting process. Jennifer Manierre is a Senior Project Manager for Clean Energy Siting at NYSERDA and will be going over how local governments can engage in the new permitting process.

Hear from knowledgeable speakers about practical emission reduction targets and what strategies we'll need to reach those targets. Learn how you as an individual or business owner can take action to be a part of the solution for a cleaner New York! Speakers: Allison Considine, NY Campaign Representative for the Sierra Club Bruce Ho, Senior Advocate in Climate & Clean Energy Program at the NRDC Victoria McGarril, Consultant for Sustainable Transportation Solutions at Energetics

Learn what you can do to promote comprehensive utility energy efficiency & heat pump (not pipelines) programs! In partnership with Renewable Heat Now, New Yorkers for Clean Power is collecting comments on the joint utility filing for the utility energy efficiency programs. The public comment deadline is July 1st, 2019. Submit a comment (you can use our sample): https://actionnetwork.org/letters/renewable-heat-now-for-all The utility efficiency programs need to be well funded, accessible, provide incentives for renewable heating and cooling and not gas! Speakers include: Bob Howarth, Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology at Cornell University Valerie Strauss, Director of Policy & Regulatory Affairs at Association for Energy Affordability Jessica Azulay, Executive Director of Alliance for a Green Economy Jens Ponikau, Owner of Buffalo Geothermal Heating & Vice President of New York Geothermal Energy Organization