Dan Miner
Sierra Club NYC Group, Chair
© Copyright 2008

PlaNYC, the City’s sustainability plan, is a great initial response to climate change.  However, the more immediate threat is higher energy costs, which the plan does not directly address.  World oil demand keeps rising, while world oil production is expected to peak and begin permanent decline as early as 2012.  That guarantees greater volatility in oil price and supply.  Natural gas supplies also face constraints. Fuel depletion is increasingly in mainstream news.  Higher fuel prices would affect: trucks bringing groceries to supermarkets; winter heating costs; restaurants and theaters dependent on tourists; budgets for fire, police, and sanitation services; commuter demand for bus, subway and train service; aviation and related industries.  

Public opinion polls suggest that climate change initiatives may have greater success when framed as responses to energy volatility.  In the short term, expanding capacity margins through energy conservation will make the City more resilient to price and supply volatility, while slowing climate change and expediting PlaNYC initiatives.  In the long term, we need to push discussion beyond current PlaNYC goals, and start building a post-petroleum economy now.

Green jobs and investment will help our economy. A national project to make clean energy cheap can restore domestic manufacturing, create millions of jobs that can’t be outsourced, and stimulate the economy, while improving our quality of life and mitigating climate change. City and State leadership will maintain our competitive edge.

What's the next step for NYC? Sustainable Energy Independence for NYC argues that the most effective way to accelerate NYC’s response to both climate change and energy volatility is the formation of an Energy Volatility Task Force.

• Form a NYC energy volatility oil task force to study potential impacts and mitigations.  Portland, OR and San Francisco have already formed such task forces.  
• Require consideration of energy volatility and future energy prices in all City agency budgeting and planning decisions, including PlaNYC revisions.
• Universities, civic and advocacy groups and business organizations should form their own task forces, to link with government initiatives.
• Bottom-up voluntary sustainability actions should be accelerated simultaneously with top down incentives, mandates and legislation.
  
  Selected recommendations from full report:
  
  Transportation
• implement congestion pricing with funds directed to building mass transit
• remove hidden subsidies for driving and parking cars
• increase bus & subway services, interconnect city and regional rail
• increase alternative fuel and electric vehicle fleets
• build more intercity passenger and freight train capacity
• restrict suburban sprawl, encourage urban infill around mass transit
  
  Regionalize industry and agriculture
  
• link businesses with regional service providers and manufacturers
• encourage procurement of regional farm products by city agencies, private institutions, nonprofit community organizations, schools and businesses
• establish more community and school gardens, more retail farmers markets, a wholesale farmer’s market, and a distribution center for regional products
  
  Buildings
• incentivize or require energy retrofits for more buildings
• step up efforts to encourage conservation, replace incandescent lights with compact fluorescents, replace old equipment with new efficient models, get boiler maintenance inspections and rooftop solar thermal heating and hot water systems
  
  Energy
• Set timetables for implementation of PlaNYC energy initiatives, especially for formation of the Energy Planning Board.
• Maximize City support for green power capacity with stable and consistent tax credits, long-term power purchase agreements with renewable power producers, mandate increased renewable power purchases by grid operators, City agencies and large private users, and green job training programs.
  
  Recommendations for New York State
• Expand net metering, allowing property owners to profitably install solar photovoltaic systems that will feed surplus power back into the grid.
• Distribute smart meters/ time-of-use meters, which enable users to see and choose less costly off hour electricity.
• Implement the proposed NY State Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard, aimed at reducing current power use 15% by 2015.
• Revitalize and update the State Energy Plan to account for energy volatility.
  
  
  

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