Welcome to the 2023-24 Clean Power Guide. Our theme last year was “The Green Economy Grows Up.” This year, we can only say it’s growing some more. In 2022, nationally, heat pump sales exceeded sales of conventional furnaces. Remember when nobody had heard of them?
So our theme this year is timely: Electrify! We tie together heating and cooling, power supply and mobility under that core idea with a powerful reason. You can’t make combustion of liquid fuels clean, period. The shift to renewable energy to power electric lifestyles is the solution, and there are many affordable ways to implement it.
In these pages you will learn steps for planning and assessing the upgrades your home needs, and ways to make them affordable by sequencing your steps to start saving at the beginning. You will find abundant information on EVs, solar options, choosing an efficiency contractor, and green jobs. With editorial support from Chrisso Babcock, our outreach coordinator, much of this data has been gathered from expert sources by Sustainable Hudson Valley’s three EnergyCorps interns—Alyssa Rivera, Lizette de Alem, and Joanne Louis-Paul—funded by New York State to build the workforce! We do love this partnership.
Even if you’re feeling a little jaded or overwhelmed, this promises to be a good year to keep on top of the news. State and federal policy decisions expected in 2024 will dramatically shape your clean energy choices.
New York’s Public Service Commission will eventually have to review its suspension of the popular “opt-out community distributed generation”—the policy framework that allows entire communities to opt into renewable energy sources. Right now, a surprise suspension of this guiding policy has left providers of renewable energy to towns hanging, unable to deliver the programs they were founded to offer.
The state’s Cap-and-Invest program should launch, making climate polluters pay and channeling even more dollars into clean energy.
The Justice40 Technical Assistance Center run by WE-ACT will be up and running to help communities and organizations access federal funding.
EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Fund will be directing another $27 billion into the economy, much of it for financial institutions to lend for home energy improvements.
Through the year, we will build on the educational resources in these pages with events, social media, and the fourth annual Hudson Valley Climate Solutions Week, set for September 14–22, 2024. Please share your stories, questions, and ideas with us on how to make Climate Solutions Week a success.
With appreciation,
Melissa Everett, PhD, Executive Director,
Sustainable Hudson Valley