A lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council is calling on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to adopt a 50% renewable energy standard by 2025 to reinforce the 2015 Opportunity Agenda he unveiled in his State of the State speech late last month.
“Creating a 50 x ’25 renewable energy standard can not only help the state meet its clean energy goals, but its social ones, with new, good-paying jobs, rural development, and economic growth that can help lift up the poor,” reports Kit Kennedy, Counsel for NRDC’s Air and Energy Program. “Clean energy will help make the governor’s agenda a reality.”
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A highlight of Cuomo’s clean energy agenda is a Five Cities Energy Plan to save municipalities up to $400 million per year, while cutting their emissions 20%, Kennedy writes. It also includes an international competition to attract clean energy businesses, a $5 billion commitment to the state’s Clean Energy Fund, expanded battery R&D, and a community solar program.
A 50% standard “would make our electric grid more resilient during times of stress (think: scorching summer afternoons), give our kids cleaner air to breathe, create thousands of new jobs, and further prove New York’s leadership in the effort to spur energy innovation and fight climate change.”
