Clean-energy economy requires diverse political movement

Change is difficult. Even when we know it will lead to something better, we always seem to resist the transition.

With the criminal convictions of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, change in how the 2016 legislative session is managed seems inevitable as lawmakers brace for who will be next in the cross hairs of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. 

The removal of high-ranking figureheads to date has not been enough to inspire action on real political reform, but it may momentarily weaken the stranglehold special interests have on the legislature. In Albany’s current pay-to-play culture it is generally assumed every transaction is being watched, every conversation wiretapped. Will the added scrutiny make 2016 a year for doing the people’s business or produce a do-nothing legislature crippled by fear? 

There are promising signs that change, no matter how difficult, is coming. 

On the environmental front, the governor’s first year of his second term in office has been something of a political rebirth — starting with the bold banning of fracking, the revolutionary Revising the Energy Vision (REV) process, and a public declaration to make New York a global leader on climate — by mandating that at least half of our energy comes from renewable sources by 2030.  

This commitment is backed by billions of dollars of potential state investment in solar, wind and efficiency programs that coupled with proper market signals and a smart transmission grid, could positively transform New York’s economy and combat climate change. But Cuomo’s rebranding as a climate champion has inconveniently strained his administration’s obsession with retaining jobs in western New York — many of which are steeped in uneconomic coal and nuclear plants that are failing and looking to close. 

While retiring the state’s four remaining coal plants (Dunkirk, Cayuga, Huntley, and Somerset) would immediately remove 13 percent of carbon emissions from the state’s electric sector, it would also remove their central financial contributions to local tax bases — hurting employment, gutting school funding and other ancillary benefits. These have sustained small upstate communities for years. 

While a diminished demand for electricity and a glut of cheap natural gas have made these dirty plants uneconomic, the Public Service Commission has provided bailouts to these plants on the backs of rate-payers, for hundreds of millions of dollars to keep them running. These bailouts have proved to be a clumsy, expensive way to prop up community tax bases and job retention when the power isn’t even needed.

The governor is fully aware that he cannot reach his greenhouse gas emission cuts alone through renewable energy development without phasing out coal, oil, and natural gas consumption. Yet the inevitable transition will be difficult without the apparent political fallout that comes with hurting labor and local economies.

It is out of this conflict that Governor Cuomo announced in his State of the State address that he would permanently retire all coal fired power plants by 2020.  To support this mandate – the state would allocate $19 million to provide transition assistance to communities impacted by coal plant retirements – which could include tax base relief, worker retraining and replacement renewable energy facilities.  While the details and language for this deal are still emerging, this bold, first-of-its-kind program in New York still raises the question of whether these facilities would be allowed to repower with natural gas. The Sierra Club is confident that in each of the four coal plant closure scenarios – repowering is not economic, nor is the additional power needed if the transition model is followed.  We will continue to leverage our legal resources to ensure a just and renewable transition is pursued.  

It is abundantly clear that the entire reconstruction of New York’s energy grid, efficiency retrofits, and the manufacturing of solar panels, wind turbines, and smart grid hubs will create tens of thousands of new jobs. In his budget address Cuomo vowed to provide funding to train 10,000 new workers in the renewable energy field, which may be as important as funding for renewable energy infrastructure itself.

Maneuvering the socioeconomics of phasing out fossil fuels in pursuit of carbon neutral alternatives is not a conundrum unique to Cuomo. The Sierra Club and the larger environmental community have also struggled with building support for this transition — and we have often been callously unconcerned with the plight of workers and environmental justice communities in our own pursuit of greenhouse gas reductions. The marginal gains we have made in combating climate change have often disproportionately benefited more privileged New Yorkers.

But as the severity of climate change has accelerated and the chasm of financial inequity has widened, we have also seen the climate movement crack open and envelope a much wider spectrum of participation. NY Renews, an exciting new coalition of labor, faith and environmental justice groups, is forming and poised to pound the halls of Albany, demanding real action on climate —  and the kind of just transition to a renewable energy economy that restores prosperity and dignity to workers and their families.

The idea is that we can address both the climate crisis and the inequality crisis with the same set of policies. As the impacts of climate change mount, the crises of inequality and democracy will continue to grow as well.

The Sierra Club is proud to be a part of this coalition and is excited by the possibilities of what this movement can accomplish. In the coming legislative session we will be demanding a climate mandate codified in statute, ensuring that the existing resources and revenue streams are intentionally targeted and allocated toward vulnerable, impacted, historically disadvantaged, and front line communities. But existing resources will not be enough. To move as rapidly as possible, we need new revenue and a broad vision to support a game-changing transition. Our platform is as follows:

 

The platform is ambitious, but certainly not as daunting as the challenges climate change has placed before every New Yorker.  

The Sierra Club sees value in the NY Renews campaign far beyond just the components of the legislation. What we are building is a political movement — one that is diverse, resilient and powerful. For too long the environmental community has ignored the connection between the exploitation of nature and the subjugation of people, and we have much to gain by tackling both. 

Please join us in pushing for this transition to a just and equitable clean energy economy in New York. We could all use the change.

 

NOTE: This article is slightly different than the column in the printed version of the Winter 2016 Sierra Atlantic.