Opinion: How New York’s Utilities Are Spreading Disinformation About Electric Energy
By Juan-Pablo Velez
New York State legislators must invest now, not later, in our children’s future and planet Earth.
Worried about the climate crisis? Live in Brooklyn, Long Island, or Upstate? Bad news: your gas bill is paying for anti-climate disinformation.
Nearly all of New York’s gas utilities—National Grid, National Fuel, Central Hudson, NYSEG, and RG&E—are working to defeat our state’s nation-leading climate law, the 2019 Climate Act. Working hand in glove with the fossil fuel industry, they’ve spent millions on fear-mongering ads, robocalls, and lobbyists to fight the inevitable: cheap, pollution-free heat for all New York’s buildings.
The Climate Act requires New York to stop warming the planet by 2050, and the state’s Climate Action Council recently released a plan to get us there. The number one source of our state’s climate pollution is the fossil gas we burn to cook our meals and heat our homes and buildings. The only viable way to eliminate this pollution is to stop burning gas in buildings and replace it with electricity: swapping gas ranges for induction stoves, and fossil-fueled heating for heat pumps, which provide efficient heating and cooling.