Powering New York’s Economic Recovery

by Bruce E. Ventimiglia, Co-Chair, BALCONY

With our nation mired in one of the worst economic collapses since the Great Depression, I am heartened to see President Obama leading the charge to put Americans back to work. The President’s focus on revitalizing our long neglected infrastructure is a common-sense approach that will create jobs, spur investment and help turn around our slumping economy.

Read the entire article: Energy

Lawmaker: N.Y. electricity pricing an ‘insane’ system

Change could save ratepayers $2.2 billion a year, he claims

by Jay Gallagher

ALBANY – Electric rates could be cut by 10 percent across the state with “a stroke of the pen,” a Westchester County lawmaker said Tuesday.

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, Tuesday introduced a bill that would abolish the way the price of electricity is currently set – known as “pay as bid” – and replace it with one where producers would be paid what they were willing to take.

Indian Point and a License to Disagree

By Peter Applebone

BUCHANAN, N.Y.

Remember Indian Point? No, not the friendly Energy Center version advertised during Yankee games, but the scary nuclear plant version that New York State officials vowed to shut down after 9/11 as an unacceptable risk.

Yes, we all sort of do, in our short-attention-span way. But then in the current Madoff/bailout/exploding 401(k) moment, we sort of don’t. That’s one reason, if timing is everything, that the decision to be made next year on whether to relicense the plant for 20 more years feels close to a foregone conclusion.

Millions of Jobs of a Different Collar

By Steven Greenhouse

Everyone knows what blue-collar and white-collar jobs are, but now a job of another hue — green — has entered the lexicon.

Presidential candidates talk about the promise of “green collar” jobs — an economy with millions of workers installing solar panels, weatherizing homes, brewing biofuels, building hybrid cars and erecting giant wind turbines. Labor unions view these new jobs as replacements for positions lost to overseas manufacturing and outsourcing. Urban groups view training in green jobs as a route out of poverty. And environmentalists say they are crucial to combating climate change.

DiNapoli Announces $500 Million Commitment to “Green” Investments

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today announced the launch of his Green Strategic Investment Program which will increase commitments to environmentally focused investment strategies by $500 million over the next three years across the New York State Common Retirement Fund’s entire portfolio. DiNapoli made the announcement during an Environmental Advisory Webcast he hosted in partnership with Pace Law School.

Read the entire release here: GSIP

Millions of Jobs of a Different Collar

By Steven Greenhouse

EVERYONE knows what blue-collar and white-collar jobs are, but now a job of another hue — green — has entered the lexicon.

Presidential candidates talk about the promise of “green collar” jobs — an economy with millions of workers installing solar panels, weatherizing homes, brewing biofuels, building hybrid cars and erecting giant wind turbines. Labor unions view these new jobs as replacements for positions lost to overseas manufacturing and outsourcing. Urban groups view training in green jobs as a route out of poverty. And environmentalists say they are crucial to combating climate change.

BALCONY Supports NYS “15 in 15 Green Collar Job Initiative”

BALCONY announces today its support of Governor Spitzer’s “15 by 15 Green Collar Job Initiative” that will begin New York State’s long hard transition to renewable energy.

Read the announcement: Green Collar Job Initiative

BALCONY co-chair Alan Lubin hosts Jerome Ringo, President of the Apollo Alliance, as the keynote speaker at the February 16th Labor Lunch of the New York State Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus. Joining them at the left is Paul Tonko, President and Chief Executive Office of NYSERDA.

 

The Green-Collar Solution

Op-Ed Columnist, THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Van Jones is a rare bird. He’s a black social activist in Oakland, Calif., and as green an environmentalist as they come. He really gets passionate, and funny, when he talks about what it’s like to be black and green:

“Try this experiment. Go knock on someone’s door in West Oakland, Watts or Newark and say: ‘We gotta really big problem!’ They say: ‘We do? We do?’ ‘Yeah, we gotta really big problem!’ ‘We do? We do?’ ‘Yeah, we gotta save the polar bears! You may not make it out of this neighborhood alive, but we gotta save the polar bears!’”