WPCNR’S ELIOT SPITZER’S ALBANY. By Governor Eliot Spitzer. April 21, 2007: Yesterday, I announced my plan to address three seemingly intractable issues: rising energy bills, rising global temperatures, and a rising tide of young people leaving New York for opportunity elsewhere.
These three interrelated and steadily growing problems together constitute a threat we simply cannot afford to ignore.
- Our rising energy prices are the second-highest in the nation–behind only Hawaii–and these energy costs are stunting economic growth and burdening hard-working families.
- Our rising temperatures have forced us to confront that climate change is real and has become this generation’s greatest environmental challenge.
- And the rising percentage of young people who leave our state for opportunity elsewhere has signaled a wake-up call that it is time to take aggressive steps toward reviving our economy.
We are at a watershed moment for New York, for America, and for our planet. If we do not dramatically alter the way we use energy, we will see an ever-increasing demand for power that will continue to result in even higher energy prices that will paralyze our economy. There will be more brownouts and blackouts. Our dependence on foreign oil, already dangerous, will increase. And I know you’re aware of the cataclysmic implications of accelerated global climate change.
The plan I announced yesterday is a framework called “15 by 15”: by 2015, we will decrease our energy consumption from forecasted levels by 15 percent–the most aggressive target in the nation. We will achieve this with a two-pronged approach, because we must both build and conserve. We will increase our energy efficiency, while at the same time increasing our sustainable power supply by implementing a clean power plant siting law and investing in clean energy production. The result will be lower energy bills, a cleaner environment, and thousands of new jobs fueled by a new industry born from clean power.
By embracing both ambitious energy efficiency standards and renewable energy goals, we will catalyze the growth of the clean power industry. Think of all the high-paying jobs that will be needed to retrofit power plants, homes, and office buildings so they can be more efficient; the jobs that will be needed to develop innovative efficiency and clean energy technologies; and the jobs that will be needed to manufacture the products at the scale that will be necessary to reach our goals. And lower energy bills will allow New York’s businesses to spend less on energy and more on innovation -helping us both to retain the jobs we’ve got and attract new ones.
Equally important is the impact this framework will have on global climate change. It is estimated that “15 by 15” alone would result in an annual carbon dioxide reduction of about 12.8 million tons. That’s the equivalent of removing 2.5 million cars from the road. And if we are able to increase the amount of energy we get from clean, renewable sources, we will remove even more climate change-causing pollutants from the atmosphere.
This plan is an opportunity for New York to lead the nation into an era of sustainable energy. I urge you to share what we’re doing here in our great state with your friends, family, and colleagues, and ask them to sign up on our website to partner with you–and with me–in making New York the Empire State once again.