Welcome to the first edition of the Climate Change Awareness & Action newsletter.
We named the newsletter “The Next Generation” because how we live today will determine environmental conditions for the generations that follow us. If we care in more than words, we have to examine how we live and make changes.
Climate change is the most serious environmental crisis we face. Man-made climate change is moving us out of a stable climate at a pace never seen in geologic history. It was a stable climate 11,000 years ago that enabled civilization to flourish.
We are leaving that stable climate and entering an era of climate instability: stronger storms, more intense weather extremes of droughts and floods, more forest fires, heat waves, melting glaciers and ice caps, toxic algal blooms, death of coral reefs, rising sea levels, acidification of the oceans……. How these environmental stressors will change civilization is anybody’s guess.
What is clear is that we must either adapt and start to use existing and new technologies to transition away from fossil fuels or run the risk that climate change will cause civilization as we know it to break down.
In CNY we are starting to see more toxic algal blooms due to such factors as warmer weather and increased rain which carry more agricultural nutrients into lakes. Milder winters are contributing to the increase in tick-borne diseases. How severely these events will damage lakeside communities and public health in CNY is yet to be determined.
CCAA was started three years ago by individuals from different environmental organizations in CNY to focus solely on climate change issues. We now have about 1,400 people on our e-mail list and plan to publish our newsletter four times per year.
CCAA members from the City of Syracuse and suburbs are pleased to be partnering with Sierra Club in its “Ready for 100% Clean Energy” campaign, specifically geared to having the Town of Dewitt sign on to the commitment for 100% Clean Energy. Organizational meetings in the fall 2018 led to a meeting with Town of Dewitt Supervisor Dr. Ed Michalenko, with several Town Board members and with Mr. Sam Gordon, Director of Planning and Zoning, also in attendance. Sierra Club volunteers praised the town for its existing 2014 comprehensive Sustainability Plan but pushed the town to commit to a 2019 review of the Plan, as well as a commitment to a new timeline to achieve 100% Clean Energy.
Sierra Club/CCAA volunteers are now beginning to engage with DeWitt area businesses and academic institutions that already have a strong track record in sustainability. We will ask the businesses to send a letter to Supervisor Michalenko, urging him to pledge to transition our community to 100% clean, renewable energy. Sierra Club has information specific to the State of New York to help the business community, if necessary, while acknowledging that Ed Michalenko and Sam Gordon are already very well versed in the challenges the region may face. When a business and the Town of Dewitt sign on, we will be involved in educational events and publicity to share the good news and action plan.
If you would like to be involved in the Ready for 100% Clean Energy Campaign, please contact Sierra Club volunteer Sonia Kragh sykragh@yahoo.com or CCAA Pete Wirth, pwirth2@verizon.net
SUPPORT the Climate and Community Protection Act
By Fred Zolna
The Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA) will set New York State on a path to reducing green house gases 50% by 2030, and 100% by 2050. The Act has passed the NYS Assembly each of the past three years. With the recent change in the NYS Senate it seems poised to become law if voters actively encourage their elected officials to support it.
CCAA and Climate Justice Committee co-sponsored a training session in Syracuse on the CCPA by NYRenews, a statewide coalition promoting this legislation, attended by 15 local activists.
Some key provisions of the CCPA making it worthy of support, are:
50% reduction in GHG by 2030 goal enacted into law
100% reduction in GHG by 2050 goal enacted into law
Gives high priority to communities impacted by climate change and inequality
Sets high labor standards for all state funded green jobs
Imposes a timetable on state to develop regulations needed to reach GHG goals
Establishes a Climate Justice Working Group to advise state government
Prohibits state from taking actions which increase GHG
The main goal at this point is to solidify support in both chambers of the legislature and making CCPA a priority for this legislative session. Help by contacting your NYS Assembly Member and NYS Senator to tell them why we must move forward to 100% renewable energy and create thousands of good green jobs, or by joining NYRenews for Climate, Jobs, and Justice Lobby Day in Albany on February 5. Free buses and carpools will be arranged and free lunch served (contact daniela@nyrenews.org for information).
“Limiting global warming to 1.5°C will require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society…”
–IPCC, October 2018
The Federal government may be fiddling while the world burns, but New York State and its residents are taking action towards meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Accord. One critical action is addressing the heating and cooling of our buildings, which contribute over 1/3 of NY’s greenhouse gas emissions.
HeatSmart CNY is a new community-led initiative tackling this challenge head-on by educating and encouraging adoption of renewable heating and cooling technologies, such as cold climate air source (e.g. “ductless mini-splits”) and ground source (“geothermal”) heat pumps, as well as heat pump water heaters.
Ever daydreamed about making your home “net zero”? You can by combining these with solar photovoltaics!
Jerry Acton of Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers for Healthy Energy testified to the Public Service Commission last year that over 200,000 homes per year need to convert to efficient heat pumps to meet NY’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. This is a huge lift. Will you help make it happen?
Heat pumps are also key to increasing our climate resiliency in a warming world. They provide cooling in our increasingly hot summers far more efficiently than conventional air conditioners, helping decrease the summer peak electricity loads and limiting the need for dirty oil “peaker plants.”
For geothermal heat pumps especially, there is no better time to install than this spring. Current incentives include a 30% federal tax credit, a $1500/ton state tax rebate, up to $400/ton from National Grid for non-gas customers, and a $5000/home grant from HeatSmart CNY for low-to-moderate income customers.
All of these can be combined.
At HeatSmart CNY workshops and open houses, people can learn more about these technologies, available incentives, and talk with installers about the possibilities for their home or building. We’ll also talk about air sealing and insulation.
If you’d like to organize a HeatSmart CNY workshop in your community, please contact Campaign Manager Lindsay Speer at Lindsay@HeatSmartCNY. More info can be found on www.HeatSmartCNY.org, or by following @HeatSmartCNY on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Switching to Fossil Free Energy
By Martha & Tony Viglietta
Despite the greenest intentions, it’s a little daunting to decide to shift your home energy from fossil to fossil-free sources. My husband and I had to really sit down and crunch the numbers, to compare up-front costs with total savings. So after taking several deep breaths, over the past year we’ve put in solar, bought a plug-in hybrid van, and signed a contract for geothermal heat. Whew!
The short story is that government incentives led us to make these changes, but the up-front costs are still steep. The solar will pay for itself in 8-9 years and geothermal will do so in a little over 10, but the consumer still needs to pony up a lot at the front end, then wait years for the systems to actually save them money. So although it’s not an option everyone can take advantage of, for us the math worked out. If you’re thinking about making these changes, I hope our story can help in your process.
We started with a solar array. We spent extra to get a system with superior warranty and technical specifications. Our installer, CNY Solar, helped us calculate the size array we’d need for our house. The total estimate was $25K, but we took advantage of 1) a Federal tax credit of 30% of the cost of the project, 2) a NYS tax credit of 20% of the cost, capped at $5000, and 3) a NYSERDA rebate of $.35 per watt, capped at 25kw, which for us came to $2500. So our actual cost for a ground-mounted system was $10,600. Without the premium features, and mounted on a roof, a similar system could be had for under $8,000, after incentives.
A couple of key points about affordability: 1) You can finance a solar system, and the monthly payments will be about the same as your current electric bill. In that case your monthly out-of-pocket is about the same, but you are buying a valuable asset. 2) If you install a roof-mounted system, you can include roofing costs in the system’s cost when you apply for NYSERDA grants and tax credits. So if you are close to requiring a new roof, you can get a very big break on the cost of that new roof.
We’ve seen studies suggesting that the solar installation adds about $9K to the value of our house, so we factored that in as well. And we’re saving over $1000 each year in electricity costs. So the math made this a pretty easy decision.
Our next step was buying a hybrid plug-in electric car. Again, we took advantage of a $7500 federal tax credit and a $2000 NYS credit. Even factoring the increased electricity costs of charging the vehicle, we figure we’ll be saving over $1000 each year in fuel costs. Those savings brought the price of the hybrid in line with a comparable conventional new car.
The step was the big leap: geothermal heat/AC and an air-sourced heat pump water heater. Once again the incentives made this feasible. For this, you can get a federal tax credit of 30% of the cost, a $6000 NYSERDA grant, and $1800 from National Grid. We’re projecting our up-front costs at about $15K. Steep, I know. But we are switching from oil heat and hot water, so we figure we’ll save around $2000 a year in fuel costs at today’s oil prices, which we expect will be rising sharply soon, once we get a fee on carbon. That will make the cost comparison even better.
We are fortunate to have savings we can tap into for these steep up-front costs, but we plan to stay in our house another 10 years. Importantly, if we sell our house before our savings have paid down our initial costs, we will still recoup our investment because our house will sell for more than a comparable house that has vastly greater energy costs. As I said to my husband as we wondered if we were really going to do this, “If we were ever to be extravagant, what better way to spend our money than to shrink our own carbon footprint?”
ABOUT CCAA
Climate Change Awareness & Action (CCAA) was formed for the purpose of educating others and actively working towards reversing the anthropogenic climate disruption that threatens the earth.
It is imperative that we increase awareness and spur action on climate change:
to support fair and just public policies and legislation
to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
to support regenerative agriculture and conservation
CCAA seeks to create a community of people working together in CNY to bring about the changes we need to avoid an environmental crisis.
NEWSLETTER COMMITTEE
Editor: Jane Woodman Publisher: Yvonne Chu Chair: Peter Wirth
UPCOMING EVENTS
February 2, 2:00PM to 4:30PM
Geothermal Open House, Oil-to-geothermal conversion with solar panels 7375 Song Lake Road, Tully
For more info. contact Lindsay Speer <Lindsay@heatsmartcny.org>
March 15 – 17th
Syracuse Home Show NYS Fairgrounds, Clean Communities of CNY will have a booth with NYSERDA and a local auto dealer exhibiting an electric car and some demonstration EV chargers. For more info. contact Barry Carr <coordinator@ccofcny.com>
March 19, 6:30 PM
Talk: The Sustainable Future of Heating & Cooling, Skaneateles Library,
49 E Genesee Street, Skaneateles NY
Hosted by Sustainable Skaneateles
April 18, 6:30 PM
Free, public workshop “Getting to Net Zero” with installers and experts on site. Cicero Public Library
8686 Knowledge Ln , Cicero
For more info. contact Lindsay Speer <Lindsay@heatsmartcny.org>
For an even more comprehensive list of events pertaining to sustainability and climate change, contact Diane Brandli with GreeningUSA to subscribe to the GreeningUSA listserve or to publicize an event you are organizing. dbdesigninteriors@verizon.net
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
If you are interested in working on the issue of climate change, please contact us at cc.awareness.action@gmail.com or call at 315-308-0846. Don’t worry about your skill level. We are all learning. We need people who can:
CCAA members from the City of Syracuse and suburbs are pleased to be partnering with Sierra Club in its “Ready for 100% Clean Energy” campaign, specifically geared to having the Town of Dewitt sign on to the commitment for 100% Clean Energy. Organizational meetings in the fall 2018 led to a meeting with Town of Dewitt Supervisor Dr. Ed Michalenko, with several Town Board members and with Mr. Sam Gordon, Director of Planning and Zoning, also in attendance. Sierra Club volunteers praised the town for its existing 2014 comprehensive Sustainability Plan but pushed the town to commit to a 2019 review of the Plan, as well as a commitment to a new timeline to achieve 100% Clean Energy.
mal heat pumps especially, there is no better time to install than this spring. Current incentives include a 30% federal tax credit, a $1500/ton state tax rebate, up to $400/ton from National Grid for non-gas customers, and a $5000/home grant from HeatSmart CNY for low-to-moderate income customers. 
