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CORRECTION: A
previous version of this
article incorrectly
characterized 36.8 gigatons
as the total amount of
carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere. That number
refers to the amount emitted
in 2022 alone.
A coalition of natural
gas and oil companies,
utilities and labor unions has
released a new poll that found
that a majority of New Yorkers
support banning methane gas
hookups in newly constructed
buildings, starting in 2025,
to help fulfill the state’s
ambitious climate law. The
poll also found that New
Yorkers are generally
concerned about the cost of
electrifying buildings and
worry that transitioning to
fully electric buildings too
quickly could cause problems,
including more power outages.
New Yorkers for
Affordable Energy, a pro-gas
advocacy group whose members
include National Grid,
Enbridge and the American
Petroleum Institute, published
a poll Wednesday that found
that 57 percent of New Yorkers
either somewhat or strongly
support “banning natural gas
furnaces and appliances in new
building construction starting
in 2025.” The group
commissioned Siena College to
conduct the poll, which
surveyed nearly 900 New
Yorkers in February and had a
margin of error of +/- 3.7
percentage points—well within
the range considered
acceptable by professional
pollsters.
The
poll also found that 87
percent of New Yorkers are
somewhat or very concerned
about the costs consumers will
absorb as the state moves away
from heating buildings with
fossil fuels, and 80 percent
are somewhat or very concerned
that converting all the
state’s buildings to fully
electric will result in power
outages.
But in its
Wednesday press release
promoting the poll, New
Yorkers for Affordable Energy
didn’t include the 57 percent
figure showing support for a
2025 gas ban, instead only
reporting that 68 percent of
Western New Yorkers opposed
such a measure. Western New
York consists of just
8 of New York’s 62 counties,
making up about
1.4 million of New
York’s 19.6
million residents.
Nearly half of the state’s
population lives in New York
City, where—according to the
poll—68 percent support a
natural gas ban in new
construction.
That prompted several
climate advocacy groups this
week to accuse New Yorkers for
Affordable Energy of spreading
misleading information to the
public to promote natural gas,
saying it was the latest
attempt by the fossil fuel
industry to safeguard its
finances by obstructing and
delaying policy proposals that
would help New York achieve
its climate law. The 2019 law
requires the state to reduce
its greenhouse gas emissions
40 percent below 1990 levels
by 2030 and 85 percent by
2050.
“New Yorkers for
Affordable Energy is
definitely cherry picking the
data from its own funded poll
in order to spin a false
narrative that New Yorkers
supposedly oppose” the state’s
climate law, said Itai Vardi,
a communications and research
manager for the Energy and
Policy Institute, a San
Francisco-based climate
advocacy think tank. “If
anything, the poll shows that
New Yorkers largely support
electrification and
substantial climate policy
measures—they merely need
robust public financial
incentives and assistance to
make the transition.”
New Yorkers for
Affordable Energy did not
respond to questions from
Inside Climate News regarding
its poll and general
criticisms against the
organization.
The poll’s release
comes as New York officials
weigh how exactly they’ll meet
the state’s aggressive
targets, which are among the
most ambitious in the country.
Buildings
produce 32 percent of New
York’s total carbon
emissions, making them
the state’s largest greenhouse
gas emitter by sector,
followed by transportation at
28 percent. And in January,
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed
a series of new building
regulations to address
their outsized climate impact,
including requiring new
residential and commercial
buildings to be all-electric
by 2025 and 2030,
respectively.
But Vardi and other
climate activists have
criticized New Yorkers for
Affordable Energy in recent
years, accusing it of playing
a central role in campaigns to
thwart state climate efforts.
Several activists, including
members of the Natural
Resources Defense Council,
have accused New Yorkers for
Affordable Energy of being a
“front group” for major oil
and gas companies while
presenting itself as a
grassroots community
organization.
Many of the group’s
members who sit on its
steering committee and
directly fund its operations,
including the American
Petroleum Institute and
National Grid, have a long
history of lobbying against
climate policies, including
New York’s landmark climate
law. And a
report published last year
found that ten of the
organization’s key financial
supporters led a $15.5 million
lobbying campaign to advance
fracking and expand fossil
fuel infrastructure in New
York.
The report also noted
that two of the three founding
directors of New Yorkers for
Affordable Energy currently
work as executives for large
gas companies. Co-founder
Michelle Hook, the
organization’s current
executive director, is the
vice president for public
affairs of Danskammer Energy,
and co-founder Karen Merkel is
the general manager for
corporate communications for
National Fuel Gas Company.
While Wednesday’s press
release stated that “New
Yorkers support efforts on
climate change,” it excluded
many of the poll’s more
nuanced findings and focused
almost entirely on concerns
over the cost and reliability
of renewables. The group also
made the poll’s full results
“available upon request”
rather than providing a
download, leading some climate
activists to speculate that
the organization wasn’t happy
with its broader findings.
Some of the poll’s
findings that were excluded
from the group’s press release
include:
- 77 percent of New
Yorkers believe that climate
change is a serious issue;
- 74 percent said they
were willing to change
aspects of how they
live—including things like
heating their homes, cooking
and driving—to help reduce
greenhouse gas emissions;
- 74 percent believe
changing how we heat homes
is necessary to protect the
environment;
- 64 percent believe
that electrifying New York’s
buildings would create good
paying jobs;
- And 62 percent
believe the benefits of
electrifying the state’s
buildings outweigh the
costs.
But it’s worth noting
that the poll also found that
79 percent of New Yorkers
worry that electrifying their
homes is too costly, and 73
percent believe natural gas
should continue playing a role
in the state’s energy sector
as it transitions to zero
carbon emissions.
To Vardi, however,
those data points shouldn’t
lead New York policymakers to
back off or water down
aggressive climate proposals,
but to look for more ways to
make transitioning to fully
electric buildings more
affordable. “The state’s
policymakers need to provide
further beneficial funding
mechanisms to help folks get
off polluting methane gas in
their homes,” he said. “The
recent successful
pilot where the state
swapped out gas stoves for
clean induction stoves shows
this is more than feasible,
given political will and the
right priorities.”
More Top Climate
News
Fossil Fuel
Companies Donated $700
Million to American
Universities Over 10 Years:
Speaking of research funded by
the fossil fuel industry, it
turns out that oil and gas
companies have given more than
$700 million in research
funding to U.S. universities
over the last decade, Amy
Westervelt reports for the
Guardian. That’s
according to a new report by
the think tank Data for
Progress and the nonprofit
group Fossil-Free Research.
Because many of those colleges
specifically conduct climate
studies with that funding,
which then gets cited during
policy debates, the report’s
authors worry that such a
financial relationship could
be influencing climate policy
in favor of industry
preferences.
Congress Voted
to Block ESG Investing, but
Biden Is Expected to Veto:
Republicans saw their first
national victory this week in
their war against “woke
capitalism,” but it’ll likely
be short lived. A GOP bill to
prevent pension fund managers
from basing investment
decisions on factors like
climate change cleared
Congress on Wednesday, setting
up a confrontation with
President Joe Biden, who is
expected to veto the measure,
David
Morgan reports for Reuters.
The bill managed to pass the
Democratically controlled
Senate after senators Joe
Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Jon
Tester (D-Mont.) crossed the
aisle to vote in favor.
Why Greta
Thunberg Is Protesting Wind
Farms in Norway:
Ongoing protests by
environmental activists,
including Swedish climate
advocate Greta Thunberg, over
two wind farms in Norway are
revealing how even clean
energy technologies can run
afoul with the nuanced
priorities of the global
climate movement, Kelsey
Ables and Rick Noack report
for The Washington Post.
While experts say wind power
must play a crucial role in
reducing the world’s
greenhouse gas emissions,
these specific Norwegian wind
farms were built on land
traditionally used by the
country’s Indigenous Sami
people to herd reindeer,
scaring off the prized animal
that has long provided Sami
communities with food,
clothing and labor.
Today’s
Indicator
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