The State’s Climate Action Council has released its draft scoping plan for public comment.
New York State’s Climate Action Council, Department of Environmental Conservation, and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced the release of the plan which describes recommended policies and actions to help New York meet its ambitious climate directives as part of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act).
The Draft Scoping Plan, found at https://climate.ny.gov/, is available for a 120-day public comment period that started January 1. Residents may submit comments online, by email at scopingplan@nyserda.ny.gov, and via U.S. mail to Attention: Draft Scoping Plan Comments, NYSERDA, 17 Columbia Circle, Albany, NY 12203-6399.
The public comment period will also include at least six public hearings across the State. Details and information about how to participate in the public hearings will be announced in early 2022.
The Climate Action Council’s seven advisory panels – Transportation, Agriculture and Forestry, Land Use and Local Government, Power Generation, Energy Efficiency and Housing, Energy Intensive and Trade Exposed Industries, and Waste – along with the Climate Justice Working Group and Just Transition Working Group, submitted recommendations for the Climate Action Council to consider in the development of the Draft Scoping Plan that will help guide the State in achieving its statutory obligations under the Climate Act to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase renewable energy development, ensure climate justice, and advance the State’s commitment to carbon neutrality economy-wide by 2050.
The recommendations from the advisory panels, along with feedback from the Climate Justice Working Group, helped to advance an integration analysis process, which provided a cost-benefit assessment of the strategies under consideration accounting for emissions reductions and health benefits.
The Draft Scoping Plan has now been submitted to the Governor and the Legislature. Public input received on the plan will be used by the Climate Action Council to help develop the Final Scoping Plan, which will be posted online and delivered to the Governor and the Legislature by January 1, 2023. The DEC will release regulations based on the plan by January 1, 2024.
I am vehemently opposed to NYS going green. We hav e natural gas, hydro and oil is plentiful and inexpensive. NY climate isn’t conducive to solar. We get excited when we have a day of sunshine. Many more cloudy days than sunny. The solar panels are hard to dispose of because they are carcinogens and they have a large footprint that takes away from our valuable farmland and our view of mountains and lakes. It makes no sense. Other countries have gone green and are no going. back to fossil fuel.
I’m opposed to New York going green. I feel it’s going to be too expensive and unreliable for our State. We are fortunate to have hydroelectric power from Niagara Falls. Natural Gas is plentiful from PA and could be a boom to New York’s economy if fracking were allowed in the southern parts of the state. The climate of New York isn’t condusive to solar since we have so few days of bright sunshine. It’s a waste of good farmland since it has a large footprint and the soil underneath it would be useless for decades. the solar panels are made of hazard waste and are hard to get rid of. the windmills destroy the view of our mountains and lakes. Other places have gone green and found them not as efficient or reliable and in the case of Germany they are returning to fossil fuels. they have found the energy more expensive. We aren’t ready to be totally green.