New York State

CONTACT

JEFF JONES
NYS APOLLO ALLIANCE DIRECTOR
Cell: (518) 265-0719
jeffjones23(at)gmail.com
24 Fourth Street
Troy, NY 12180

ADAM HILLIARD
PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE
Phone: (518) 272-3500, ext. 107
Cell: (518) 791-4556
Fax: (518) 272-3501
ahillard(at)wdiny.org
24 Fourth St
Troy, NY 12180

For steering committee members and bios, click here.

MISSION
The New York State Apollo Alliance is a coalition of business, labor, environment, environmental justice and community leaders working to advance New York State’s clean energy future through the use of efficiency and renewable sources. We promote energy independence, environmental protection and opportunities for New York State’s businesses and workers through the creation of well-paying new and transitional jobs.

Jeff Jones talks about the $17 billion in stimulus money that New York will receive for energy-efficiency and renewable-energy projects.

AGENDA
10-Point Plan

1. Green the Infrastructure. Create and retain good new, healthy jobs in New York State, fight global warming, protect the environment and grow the economy by investing in construction and retrofitting of high-performance buildings with innovative financing and incentives, improved building operations, and updated codes and standards. This will reduce energy needs, promote health and safety, revitalize urban areas, improve schools and help working families, businesses and government agencies realize substantial cost savings. It will also improve student performance and staff productivity.
2. Promote Energy Efficiency and Conservation. The greatest single source of new energy available today is increasing the efficient use of existing power generation. Green existing buildings, improve motor vehicle fuel efficiency, and expand hybrid and electric mass transit before building new polluting power plants.
3. Create Thousands of Green-Collar Jobs. Make New York State a national leader in the construction of high-performance buildings. Promote research and development, marketing campaigns, and technical assistance for manufacturers working in the green technology sector. Invest in existing industries to upgrade capacity and create new incentives, including investments from state and local pension funds.
4. Transition Workforce from the Old to the New. Link job growth and economic development. Create good paying jobs with benefits. Promote education to train a skilled workforce. Create new jobs through energy audits and retrofits, building deconstruction and reconstruction, brownfields remediation, and specialized pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship trainings. Encourage government to take the lead in creating high-performance jobs with public buildings, public schools, affordable housing, parks, and transit infrastructure. Encourage the business community to invest in high-performance real estate and the technologies of the future by demonstrating growth potential.
5. Promote Healthy Green Communities. Significantly expand urban open spaces and create skilled jobs by greening city, suburban and rural environments. Provide incentives for a green roofs solar initiative. Reduce air-conditioning needs in summer by planting urban trees and using energy efficient technologies, and reduce heating costs in winter through energy conservation. Promote public health by building bikable and walkable communities.
6. Build Healthy and High-Performance Schools. Children are uniquely vulnerable to toxic contaminants and no one is in charge of making sure that school environments are clean and healthy. Healthy and high-performance schools are designed, constructed, and maintained to optimize the health of students and staff. New York State invests over $1.5 billion annually on school construction and renovation, and nearly as much is spent by school districts locally. Healthy and high-performance schools benefit children, teachers and staff and strengthen communities.
7. Invest in Renewables. Reduce dependency on foreign oil and diversify energy sources by promoting existing technologies in solar, wind, biomass, micro-hydro, and geothermal, and by setting ambitious but achievable goals for increasing renewable generation. Bring highly skilled construction jobs to New York State by augmenting incentives for residents and businesses to install solar units. Promote state and local policy — including implementation of state renewable portfolio standard goals — that link clean energy and good jobs. Invest in increased solar and wind power. Research and develop new technology for distributed renewable generation. Rely on indigenous resources, which retain income rather than export revenues.
8. Bolster Energy Distribution Systems. Ensure that existing energy distribution systems are adequately maintained and upgraded to prevent future blackouts and secure public safety. Make certain that New York State maintains its competitive edge by ensuring a consistent, independent and reliable power supply. Promote distributive sources of energy by enabling access to the grid without overburdening poor and working communities and communities of color.
9. Develop Transit Alternatives. Increase mobility, job access, and transportation that uses alternative fuels. Reduce air pollution, congestion, environmental toxins, and waste by investing in effective multimodal networks including mass transit, light rail, ferries, convenient and safe bicycle routes and low- and non-polluting vehicles.
10. Eliminate Waste. Move away from the throwaway society by pursuing a statewide waste reduction policy that creates green collar jobs by reusing, remanufacturing, and recycling existing materials. Through government incentives, link zero waste to green industrial retention.

PAST ACCOMPLISHMENTS

On January 16, 2009, the New York State Apollo Alliance invited interested parties to participate in a discussion to understand and highlight clean and renewable energy-based economic revitalization strategies that will create new, green jobs in our area.  We discussed the formation of a Capital Regional Apollo Alliance as part of our strategy to create city- and region-based NY State affiliates. Forty representatives from labor, environment, environmental justice, business and education groups attended; the result was to convene a series of community forums on clean energy/green jobs topics.  The first will focus on the Obama Administration’s economic stimulus plan.  Another planned topic is the Green Homes/Green Jobs campaign a plan that will be introduced in the state legislature soon to retrofit for efficiency a million homes in the next 5 years.

Green Jobs Now! A National Day of Action was held on September 26, 2008. The New York State Apollo Alliance participated by explaining what green jobs will mean to the people and economy of New York.

The New York State Apollo Alliance convened a roundtable panel of experts on January 15, 2008, to discuss emerging coal technologies and their potential application in the western part of the state. This workshop, held in the State Capital complex in Albany, NY, was organized in response to requests that the Alliance consider supporting a 650 MW advanced coal technology plant proposed for Huntley Station in Erie County. The developer, New York State Energy Planning Board

Executive Order No. 2, issued April 9, 2008 by Gov. David Paterson, created the New York State Energy Planning Board, charged with creating a State Energy Plan to be completed by June 30, 2009. The Board, in turn, created an Energy Coordinating Working Group (ECWG) to assist with fulfilling the responsibilities of the Executive Order.

New York State Apollo will be an active participant in developing the State Energy Plan, through consultation with the ECWG, the public participation process and involvement in various advisory groups.

Net Metering

The New York State Apollo Alliance has been working with a broad coalition of renewable energy, environment, business and labor groups supporting legislation expanding net metering to encourage growth of the renewable energy industry. In June 2008, the state legislature approved an expanded net metering program that will allow commercial customers to net meter wind and solar electric systems of up to 2 MW in size or the customers’ historic peak load, whichever is less. In addition, the new legislation increases the size of wind and farm waste systems that farmers can net meter to 500 kW.

15 X 15 Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (EPS)

In June 2008, the New York State Public Service Commission approved the Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (EEPS), an initiative designed to reduce energy usage in New York State 15% by 2015 (15 by 15). This will result in lower electricity costs as well as reduced pollution. The plan follows the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that requires the state to supply 25 percent of its electricity from renewable sources from 2004 levels by 2013. The New York State Apollo Alliance has monitored development of 15 by 15, with a particular focus on development of the workforce that will be needed to achieve these aggressive state-level goals.

Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a multi-state agreement, ranging from the Northeast to Mid-Atlantic States, to design a cap-and-trade program that will lower carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. It will require New York to cap or limit the total carbon dioxide emissions from power plants to 1990 levels beginning in 2009 through 2015 and then to begin to reduce CO2 emissions incrementally over a four-year period to achieve a 10% reduction by 2019. Taking into account expected increases in emissions absent RGGI, a reduction of approximately 35% of CO2 emissions could result by 2020.  New York raised $42 million in the December 2008 carbon credit auction. State policy is to invest all the proceeds in clean energy initiatives through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). On January 26, 2009 the NYSERDA board voted to invest $15.3 million in residential home retrofits and $2.1 million on workforce development, both intitatives are supported by NYS Apollo.

FUTURE GOALS

We will be working hard to garner support for Governor David Paterson’s 45 by ‘15 initiative, announced in his annual State of the State speech on January 7, 2009. The Governor proposes to increase the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard goal to 30% by 2015 (from 25% by 2013). This puts the target date in line with the state’s energy efficiency goal of 15 by ‘15, that is, reducing the state’s energy use 15% from anticipated levels by 2015.

• Continue to educate the community about clean energy and energy efficiency.
• Promote local government policies that grow the green economy.
• Promote the growth of green-collar jobs.
• Increase public education and support for national and New York Apollo Alliance public policy priorities