The North Country Chamber of Commerce held its annual Legislative Forum this morning. The primary discussion focused on utility costs and the debate over a state climate law passed in 2019.
New York state Sen. Dan Stec represents the 45 District, which stretches from the Queensbury area to the Canadian border. He says energy is tied to affordability and pointed to a recent memo from NYSERDA that says full implementation of the CLCPA, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, in five years will lead to an estimated increase of $4,000 or more annually in energy costs for upstate homeowners. Gas prices could exceed $2.23 per gallon over prices at the time of implementation. Stec, a Republican, criticizes Democrats in the majority for passing the measure without assessing costs.
“Frankly this cost analysis should have been done in 2019 before we all voted on the CLCPA and I’ve been hammering for years: Where’s the cost analysis?”
State Sen. Liz Krueger, chair of the Finance Committee, led 28 other Democratic senators in a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul this week saying the NYSERDA memo “erroneously conflates” the law with a cap and invest program and that “rolling back the CLCPA will not save our constituents money because it is not the cause of increasing costs.”
