September 30, 2021
by Ellen Cardone Banks
Most readers of the Sierra Atlantic will recall the intensity of the movement to ban natural gas hydrofracking in New York that led in 2014 to an executive ban on fracking in our state, and in April 2020 was codified into law and signed by former Governor Cuomo. We also remember the three-year campaign to pass the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, passed and signed in 2019, that established grid electrification and carbon emission reduction goals. If you were there, you remember the rallies, the signs, the lobby meetings with legislators, and the community meetings where we explained to our neighbors that fracking was wrong for New York and that climate goals, enacted into law, were essential. You remember the apprehension about seemingly daunting goals and the excitement when these victories were won.
It’s time to do it again!
We are still using fracked gas from Pennsylvania and other fracking states. We still have gas-fired power plants and the specter of gas-powered cryptocurrency mining (detailed elsewhere in this issue). We are still heating most of our homes, heating water and cooking with gas. Building heating accounts for about 30% of greenhouse gas emissions in our state, second to transportation and ahead of electrical generation now, thanks to progress in renewable power. Two-thirds of gas combustion in New York is used for onsite combustion in buildings (www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=NY).
We cannot continue to burn dirty fossil fuels to heat our homes, and alternatives are here with ground-sourced and air-sourced heat pumps. The gas industry is not going away without a fight, and we can expect a barrage of fear-mongering communications about (as a President once said) “shivering in the dark.” They are still promoting, and charging rate-payers for, expansion of gas pipelines into regions where homes are heated with propane, new gas power plants and pipelines for export, liquid natural gas (LNG) truck transport and the false promise of “renewable” methane.
It is going to take all of us to counteract the messages of the biggest and wealthiest industry in world history. We need to be well-informed about safe, renewable alternatives to fossil fuel combustion, toxic methane leaks from aging pipes,100,000 premature deaths in the US annually from air pollution, and the inevitable explosions that will occur as long as we dig up and burn fossil fuel. We are complicit in the poisoning of land, forests, water, humans and wildlife from fracking in our neighbor states as long as we use their products.
Sadly, the State Assembly failed to act on several bills that passed the State Senate in the session that ended in June, including the Clean Futures Act (S.5939-A/A.6761-A), which would have prohibited eight new gas-fired power plants, the Climate and Communities Investment Act (S.4264-A/A.6967) that would charge fees to polluters with proceeds going to public investment in impacted communities, and several building-related fossil fuel subsidies. New bills will be introduced in the next legislative session to sunset gas infrastructure in new residential buildings, and other bills will be re-introduced to level the playing field for renewable heat by stopping ratepayer subsidies for new residential gas lines and increasing tax breaks for renewable heat. We need to support electrification of buildings and transportation and to confront the false promise of “renewable” or “green” gas alternatives to fossil methane. And when our neighbors balk about “industrial” wind and solar energy we need to remind them that all our electricity, transportation, and heating are “industrial” and that dirty and clean industries are not equal.
Sierra Club volunteers can prepare now to learn more about gas alternatives and to be ready to join our coalition partners in public information sessions, other anti-gas events, and letters to editors. As the new legislative session begins in January 2022, we will be pushing for inclusion of anti-gas and pro-renewable legislation in Governor Hochul’s State of the State and the executive and legislative budgets. Bill memos on the Legislation tab on the chapter website are an excellent source of information. Please watch for Atlantic Chapter email communications and petitions and be prepared to meet with your State Senators and Assembly members and encourage them to sponsor the bills our legislative committee supports.
Please remember that all lobby meetings must be reported to the chapter legislative committee using this form on the chapter webpage. This step is very important to comply with state law and to retain Sierra Club’s tax-exempt status.