Cuomo Administration Pushes Energy Responsibility In Homes

While the Cuomo administration pushes sweeping changes to the state’s energy system toward a more sustainable energy future, the initiative is heavily reliant on fundamental changes in efficiency at the smallest levels—primarily with homeowners. 

A key part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s “Reforming the Energy Vision” initiative is moving away from the state’s outdated grid, which relies solely on large, centralized power plants, to a de-centralized system emphasizing local power generation and diverse energy sources. Cuomo has supported the use of microgrids and a variety of power sources—such as wind and solar—to move toward this goal.

“The goal of the REV is to engage households in a way they haven’t been engaged before in terms of energy efficiency,” said Conor Bambrick, air and energy director for Environmental Advocates of New York. “The theory behind that is, that if there’s price [incentives] and also the technology that would enable them to have more control, that we’ll start to see households become more active and pursuing activities that would help lower energy usage.”

Steven Cohen, executive director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, touted the REV initiative and noted that about a third of the energy transmitted from power sources is wasted at the individual household and building level, not even including the energy wasted during transmission.

To combat this, Cohen argues, households should upgrade their insulation and appliances to become more energy efficient. 

“Part of what you do is just replace—sometimes in the normal cycle, sometimes at an accelerated cycle—some of the appliances,” Cohen said. “The lighting fixtures and the windows, things like that, and there’s been a lot of emphasis on that in New York.”

Solar panels have also given homeowners the opportunity to save and produce energy on an individual level that was not possible for many households previously. Solar panel installations have been growing rapidly and in December, Long Island hit a milestone with its 10,000th array.

A Cuomo administration official said demand for solar has grown to the point where the state may no longer have to offer tax incentives for homeowners to buy them.

 “We like to think it’s that they’re helping the environment and fighting the impact against climate change, but I think ultimately it’s the energy savings that they’re going to get,” Bambrick said. “I think this is something that the state and groups like ours have been trying to get at for a long time in various ways through energy efficiency programs.”