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Hello Friend, |
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After a long delay, the New York state budget has officially been printed. Here’s what happened:
The 🙂
$1 billion for climate change related programs that will fund building decarbonization, clean transportation, and renewable energy.
Most of note:
Thermal energy networks (or TENS) are a key renewable technology and source of green union jobs, and creating more viable projects at scale will create a pathway towards even more of them in the future!
(2) $50 million for the Empower+ program, which helps low and moderate income households improve their homes to be more energy efficient, save money, and be more comfortable. (If you’re interested in upgrading your home, our energy advisors can help! Contact them now)
Also 🙂 A new, refundable geothermal tax credit that will enable more people to upgrade to geothermal heating in their homes.
The 😐
Through our coalition’s organizing efforts, we successfully created the GAP Fund, which will provide funding to help New Yorkers make needed repairs and upgrades to their homes that enable better energy efficiency.
But for its first year, the GAP Fund will underfunded, with just $2 million rather than the $200 million we called for. We are thrilled the GAP fund will be established and we will continue to work to expand this vital program in coming years.
The 😡
No additional money for the utility low income energy affordability program. Way too many households can’t afford their energy bills and we had hoped more relief would be coming their way. But nope.
No NY HEAT Act.
Fortunately, we still have five weeks to push for our priorities in the legislative session. So join us in our efforts to win them all, this year.
So sign up with NY Renews Virtual Lobby visits next week... |
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...and for our Albany mobilization on June 5th. |
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Together, we can make sure what we did win in the budget is just the beginning. |
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