Some Good News About New York’s Environment

As the 44^th celebration of Earth Day just came to a close, we should reflect on the progress made in the battle against global warming. Looking at the various accomplishments across New York suggests there really is a lot to be proud of this year.

Our policy leaders in cities, states and in Washington D.C. have crafted smart energy strategies that prevent waste and expand the share of our energy we get from clean, renewable sources. In many cases, positive steps forward at the local level are what made national-level actions possible. Together, these steps forward are putting us on a better course.

For example, New York participates in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. This program—a collaboration between nine states to limit global warming pollution from power plants, sell permits to emit carbon, and invest the revenues in energy efficiency and clean energy initiatives—is a major success. Since it took effect in 2009, RGGI has helped to reduce regional climate-changing pollution by more than 30 percent. At the same time, it has added more than $2.3 billion to the economies of participating states. It has created jobs—more than 23,000 job-years of work across the region. And it has funded energy-efficiency measures that will save residential, commercial and industrial electricity customers more than $1 billion on their energy bills. New York strengthened the program in 2013 ensuring even more benefits in future years.

New York is also one of 29 states that have established state-level renewable electricity standards, which require utilities to secure a portion of their electricity from clean, renewable energy sources. Buoyed by federal government support through tax credits and through direct purchases of renewable energy, these policies helped to quadruple the amount of electricity America generates from the wind and the sun from 2007 to 2012. This helped avert 60 million metric tons of global warming pollution in 2012, equal to annual emissions from 13 million cars. You can see the results here in New York in the form of New York’s booming solar industry. The success of solar is why Governor Cuomo pledged to put $1 billion into solar energy. That will provide enough electricity to power almost half-a-million New York homes.

At the same time, New York and 24 other states have adopted standards that cut energy waste in homes, factories and businesses. For example, managers at New York's Empire State Building installed new windows and lighting and upgraded heating and cooling equipment; cutting energy costs by almost 40 percent and earning profit on the project in just three years.

Amid all of the good news, however, we cannot forget the scale of the challenge that lies ahead. A recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that the world has only 15 years to dramatically curtail global warming pollution. Failure to act would threaten our health, threaten our ability to supply adequate amounts of food and water, and threaten coastal areas with irreversible flooding from sea level rise. Failure to act would also increase the risks we face from extreme weather and risk irreparable harm to land and ocean ecosystems across the world.

The next front in the battle against global warming is to set a national limit on carbon pollution from power plants—which are responsible for about 40 percent of U.S. climate pollution. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is developing new rules for cleaning up power plants, expected in June.

Under the new EPA rule, every state will have to come up with its own plan for limiting carbon pollution from power plants. We in New York, having pioneered the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, know how to get the job done. We know that efforts to reduce waste and grow energy generation from clean sources like wind and the sun can help to reduce pollution now, while forming the infrastructure we will need for long-term progress. We know that we can set a high bar for action in other states and at the federal level.

Nationally, big polluters want to continue to dump unlimited amounts of carbon pollution into the air instead of adopting sensible limits that protect public health and slow global warming. And they want us to absorb the costs of climate change. That is wrong.

In response, political leaders at all levels should stand up to the big polluters and support common-sense federal action to cut carbon pollution from power plants.

We can win the fight against global warming. We can increase the scale of our clean energy infrastructure dramatically. We have the tools at our fingertips. Now let’s get to work so we have even more to be proud of next Earth Day. The future depends on us.

Heather Leibowitz is the campaign director for Environment New York Research & Policy Center.