New York Solar Businesses Ready to Roll with Clean Power
Environment New York
Contact: Julian Boggs, 202-461-2462, [email protected]
As the Obama administration readies its final Clean Power Plan to limit carbon from power plants, 42 New York solar businesses issued a letter to the White House today, pledging their support to help meet reduce carbon pollution and speed the transition to clean energy in New York.
“As solar power installers, manufacturers, designers, aggregators, product suppliers, and consultants, we welcome the EPA’s unveiling of the Clean Power Plan,” reads the letter, organized by the advocacy group Environment New York. “This plan is a critical step toward transforming our energy system to one that protects our health and environment, and that of our children.”
To address the growing threat of climate change, the U.S. EPA proposed its Clean Power Plan last June and is expected to issue a final plan early next week. A recent study by Environment New York Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group found that combined with other existing and proposed policy, the Clean Power Plan as proposed would put New York on track to reduce carbon pollution 88 million metric tons by 2025, making it the 3rd largest reducer of carbon pollution in the country. In doing so, New York would help put the US within reach of meeting its international commitment to reduce global warming pollution 26 percent by 2025.
States will have the flexibility to meet the limits introduced by the Clean Power Plan as they choose. Businesses signing the letter said the proposal could dramatically accelerate the development of clean energy across New York.
Solar power is on the rise across the state, where every week another new home or business goes solar. According to the latest solar jobs census from the Solar Foundation, the solar industry employed more than 5,200 people in New York in 2013.
Environment New York’s counterparts around the country recruited more than 650 solar businesses nationwide to sign the letter, which you can access by clicking here.
“The climate crisis demands that we fulfill our vast potential for solar energy,” said Rob Sargent, energy program director with Environment New York, “and the businesses here in New York and across the nation are ready to rise to the challenge.”
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Environment New York is a statewide, citizen based advocacy organization working for a cleaner, greener, healthier future. For more information, please visit http://www.environmentnewyork.org.
