State Senate approves energy-efficiency bill

ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York State Senate on March 9 approved a bill that seeks to address the “high cost of energy bills” statewide by weatherizing homes and creating jobs in the state’s “most vulnerable” communities. 

Lawmakers approved the measure in a 54-9 vote, per a news release from New York Energy Democracy Alliance (EDA), a statewide alliance of community-based organizations, grassroots groups, and policy experts advocating for a “renewable, equitable, accountable and local” energy system for this state.

The Energy Efficiency Equity and Jobs Act will require utilities to ensure that low-income communities of color receive an equitable share of energy-efficiency funding and jobs. This bill would require deployment of energy-efficiency retrofits to low-income communities and communities of color. 

It will also require the state to allocate worker-training funds for energy efficiency in these communities statewide. It will also necessitate that the state energy agency publicly track actual benefits of energy-efficiency retrofit work.

The bill also addresses some important barriers to energy efficiency by opening energy-efficiency funding to remove lead, mold, and asbestos as part of an energy-efficiency retrofit. 

The New York City–based group WE ACT for Environmental Justice pushed for the bill and the New York EDA provided support. 

The groups say they will now work to push for passage of a companion bill in the New York Assembly.