This summer, ClearPath Energy plans to begin building three solar farms on 100 acres of farmland near Tully, N.Y. Each of these solar farms will be twice the size of the largest solar farms currently built in Onondaga County, producing a total output of 15 megawatts combined. These solar farms would be a massive development in New York’s fight against climate change by increasing the county’s solar capacity by 50%. This increase would allow Onondaga County to cover the usage of roughly 2,200 average homes with solar energy alone. The company founder, Greg Hering, has hopes to build the three solar farms during the summer and fall of 2021 and connect them to the power grid by the end of the year. The energy from these farms will be sold from the farms directly to residential or small commercial customers. These customers will receive credit on their National Grid bill for the energy purchased from ClearPath.
These solar farms are just the beginning of what state energy officials hope to build in Central New York. As of right now, there are 29 potential solar projects that are being looked at within Onondaga County that have the potential to produce 190 megawatts of power combined. There is also a large pipeline of proposed solar projects that are subsidized with state money that would out scale even the largest of the solar farms coming to Tully. In northern Cayuga County a Florida company is attempting to get approval for a 200 megawatt solar farm, while in the southern portion of the same county a Texas company is planning to build a second 200 megawatt solar farm. Genesee County currently has the largest proposed solar farm in New York State, potentially producing 500 megawatts of power. This project would require leasing land from 31 different property owners within a seven square mile radius.
Although there are a large number of projects planned within the state of New York, only a select handful of them actually get built each year. This is largely due to the process of gaining financing and regulatory approval which can take years to do. The hardest approval to get is the authorization to connect to the electric grid. This step alone usually takes three years and requires multiple studies.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also caused hurdles in terms of New York switching to solar power. The pandemic has increased the cost of ocean shipping seven-fold, making it financially difficult to obtain the supplies needed for these projects as many solar panels are produced in Asia. However, this setback has not stopped New York State’s motivation in adopting renewable energy. The State is still committed to its renewable energy goals set in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act signed in 2019. This Act requires a 40% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030, and New York officials have responded by instilling a target of 70% state energy production coming from renewable sources by 2030. These new projects being planned will help get New York State on track to hit this goal by the next decade, as long as local support allows it to happen. Support the transition to clean energy by paying close attention to the proposed solar and wind projects in your area and make your preferences known to your local elected officials. The sooner these installations can come online, the smaller our carbon footprint will be.
Are You Going to Vote? By Gavin Landless
Tuesday June 22nd is the Primary Election day, with early voting until Sunday June 20th. Do you have a plan to vote, if you have not already done so?
Unlike the General Elections, Primaries in New York allow you to cast a ballot only if you have registered with a particular party and that party has candidates to vote for. For our readers in Onondaga County, it may be helpful to check here before heading out to your polling place.
So what is the political stance of Climate Change Awareness & Action? CCAA does not endorse any specific candidates or any specific parties, but we absolutely endorse policies that further the protection of our natural world and reduce society’s negative impacts on it. As Jan Kublick, one of our active members described it, “Encouraging people to vote with climate in mind seems to me to be the key to CCAA’s cause.” He continued, “Our real goal is to both create awareness of the climate threat and channel that ‘Awareness’ into support for candidates who will foster ‘Action’ in climate legislation and policy.” Roseann Lorefice (more on her in this edition’s Member Spotlight below) agrees: “The message to encourage participation is important.”
Grassroots political pressure was crucial in passing New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) into law in late 2019. Now the state has a Climate Action Council and is legally mandated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 40% by 2030 and at least 85% by 2050.
But the political fight is just beginning. Earlier this year the Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA) was introduced in the NY State Senate. That bill was written to equitably raise $10-15 billion over 10 years to fund a renewable economy and a transition away from fossil fuels in New York State. Unfortunately it was not brought to the floor for a vote, so the push continues.
You might think that the General Election and the big-ticket federal positions are more important than voting for local mayors, councilors and legislators. But with voter turnout often below 20%, the individual ballots of the people who do show up to cast them are that much more effective than in a General Election where voter turnout is far higher. And we know that local representation matters when it comes to the fight for climate justice. The decisions around whether to approve a community solar project or switch gasoline-spewing school buses for electronic ones all happen at the local level. Individual votes truly matter.
Remember that the purpose of Primaries is to select your favorite candidates within the party you are registered for. You are not voting for or against a political party, so it is helpful to have some familiarity with the candidates on the ballot before you show up to vote. Sonia Kragh, another of CCAA’s more active members, offers this advice: “Making a quick phone call to any candidate’s office that you are questioning their position on climate action may help solidify your vote.” While all candidates will have some information online, there’s nothing like asking a direct question or two to get an accurate impression on how prepared a candidate is on climate issues.
Early voting sites in Onondaga County are:
Camillus Fire Station (Rear Entrance): 5801 Newport Rd, Camillus NY 13031
Lafayette Fire Station #1 (Rear Entrance): 2444 Route 11 South, LaFayette NY 13084
Armond Magnarelli Community Center at McChesney Park: 2300 Grant Blvd, Syracuse NY 13208
Syracuse Community Connection (Southwest Community Center): 401-425 South Ave, Syracuse NY 13204
Hours are:
Thursday, June 17: 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Friday, June 18: 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 19: 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 20: 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Or you can vote at your local polling place on Primary Day, Tuesday June 22nd.
CCAA holds its monthly meetings on the second Tuesday of every month. If you’d like to learn more feel free to email cc.awareness.action@gmail.com.
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
News Bites
More needed: G7 nations agree to boost climate finance
The seven nations—The US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan—agreed to “jointly mobilize $100 billion per year from public and private sources, through to 2025” but the final communique was short on detail. The leaders were criticized by the Climate Action Network for failing to agree on concrete commitments on climate finance.
Experiment evaluates the effect of human decisions on climate reconstructions
In a fascinating double-blind study, multiple research groups were given the same tree ring data and asked to create a model of the Earth’s temperature changes over the past 2000 years. While none of the results contradicted each other, their differences highlighted how decision-making can affect the outcomes of scientific research.
The Keystone XL Pipeline Has Officially Been Canceled After Opposition From Biden Administration
After sixteen years of development and protests, TC Energy has finally pulled the plug on the Keystone XL oil pipeline that would have transported 800,000 barrels a day from the Canadian tar sands in Alberta to Steele City in Nebraska. 350.org founder Bill McKibben commented, “When enough people rise up, we’re stronger even than the richest fossil fuel companies.”
SPOTLIGHT ON ROSEANN & GEORGE LOREFICE By George Lorefice
Roseann and George Lorefice are residents of Manlius, NY and have been married for 48 years. They have two sons who live on the West Coast, one married with a 2½ year old toddler. Roseann is a French teacher, having retired from Chittenango High School in 2005. She continued to teach at Ithaca College and SUNY Cortland for a few years, and remains very active in foreign language associations, editing newsletters and working on web sites. George retired from Bristol Myers Squibb in 2004 as Director, Corporate Quality and Good Manufacturing Practices, after 24 years. After consulting for six more years, he retired to his garden and workshop. Until the pandemic, they both spent as much time as possible at their cabin in Canada, and traveled actively within the US, Europe, Central and South America.
Roseann and George have been active members of CCAA for several years. Roseann first became involved when she volunteered to work on the CNY People’s Climate March that took place in April 2017. Although Roseann has been more involved in CCAA, George has been there for support. Both have always had the environment foremost in their minds. As a former limnologist—an expert in freshwater ponds and lakes—George keeps up with current environmental matters, and climate change in particular. Participating in CCAA meetings and activities has kept them abreast of the consequences of climate change and also the efforts being made to curb the earth’s temperature rise due to human carbon emissions.
Over the years with CCAA, one of the highlights was the fundraiser Make America Magnifique Again with its French theme. Roseann spearheaded a recent project that produced the Climate Survey which was delivered to local political candidates and posted on CCAA’s website. They also took CCAA’s CNY Carbon Challenge. The Challenge is a positive approach to understanding and reducing your carbon footprint. Guided by clear questions, you measure your carbon emissions and are provided practical ways to bring them down.
Looking for other ways to slow down and stop the rise in carbon emissions, George became interested in Project Drawdown. The project is a positive approach to climate change by highlighting solutions that are already available to begin to solve the crisis. He likes the ideas set forth in the Project because it recognizes that climate change is already here and focuses on solutions rather than doom and gloom messaging.
George and Roseann actively practice what they preach in their 145-year-old house. They switched to a heat pump with a more efficient back-up gas furnace and hot water heater, replaced old windows with double-pane windows and added more insulation. Choosing not to invest in solar panels, they subscribe to Community Solar, thereby avoiding the capital expense but benefiting from solar power with the added advantage of a 10% discount on their electric bill. Last year, the National Solar Tour featured a video in which George described his experience with Community Solar. They have one gas vehicle and one hybrid, with plans to replace the gas vehicle with a hybrid and the hybrid with an all-electric vehicle. Although they would like to do more to reduce their carbon footprint, practicality and expense must be considered as well.
As CCAA looks to the future, Roseann and George hope to participate where they can, but more importantly continue to be spokespeople for lowering mankind’s carbon footprint and reducing their own as an example.
If you are interested in working with CCAA, please contact us at cc.awareness.action@gmail.com or call 315-308-0846. Don’t worry about your skill level. We are all learning.
We need people who can:
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NEWSLETTER COMMITTEE
Chief Correspondent: Jacob Stewart
Publisher: Yvonne Chu
Editor: Gavin Landless
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