New law to advance energy efficiency
An energy-efficiency program hailed as the most ambitious in the country was signed into law Tuesday in Syracuse.
Supporters say the Green Jobs-Green New York Act will provide efficiency upgrades to an estimated 1 million homes and businesses statewide over the next five years and create 14,000 new jobs.
Eric Walker, the organizing director with PUSH Buffalo who helped draft the original proposal for the legislation, said this will help Western New York by creating green jobs, aiding homeowners with home improvements that result in lower energy bills and in reducing carbon emissions.
He said community groups, including PUSH, are expected to play a major role in the program’s implementation.
“This is important, because it will help people we see every day deal with the crises people deal with year after year — bitter cold winters, older homes that need repair and the struggling economy. We can take care of that and create jobs while we’re at it,” Jackson said.
“This is the perfect beginning to Western New York’s recovery,” he added.
The bill includes a revolving capital fund that would utilize private investment to cover the upfront costs of energy-efficiency improvements and be repaid through the resulting energy savings.
It also provides $112 million in funding from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multistate program that New York State is part of, to administer the fund and set up green job-training programs.
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