Climate Change

Been clicking through to those ads for Smarter New York Energy

|

Been clicking through to those ads for Smarter New York Energy, a website put together by the the Warm Thoughts Communications firm, a communications organization out of New Jersey that has been contracted by NYS Propane Gas Organization to oppose the Climate Leadership and Communication Act.

I did a little more digging using the property tax records and the listing for the NYS Propane Gas Organization’s address on their website (5315 Perry City Rd, Trumansburg, NY 14886) is the home address of Bill Overbaugh, Vice President, of Ehrhart Propane in Trumansburg. Nice 50 acre property though with a lake. That said, looking at their website, it looks like they are under new leadership.

The NYS Propane Gas Organization has a webpage asking for contributions:

Donate Now to Fight the CLCPA!

Give your financial support to our CLCPA Battle Fund so we can pay for crucial advocacy efforts that are not fundable with our PERC dollars. We are asking smaller companies to support with $5,000; larger companies $10,000. Make your donation via the form below.

For details on how we plan to spend the money, here is a video presentation. Contact our Executive Director for the password.

Warm Thoughts Communications is an interesting firm, as it looks like they are mostly made up of former heating oil and propane company staffers, and their work is mostly communications for the home heating industry. The CLCPA Battle Fund effort is probably a side job, with most of their work more mundane, putting out marketing websites for local heating oil and propane companies.

It’s interesting how concerned about that heating oil and propane dealers really are about the Climate Leadership and Communication Act to be putting out such a big media effort. It’s not like oil heating or propane heating is going to disappear tomorrow — it will take decades to replace home heating systems with heat pumps. But they have to also see the the writing on the wall. Maybe they have hope they can turn the political tide, but climate change isn’t going away nor is electrification going away.

NYC’s Electric Vehicle Age Begins, Slowly – The New York Times

|

NYC’s Electric Vehicle Age Begins, Slowly – The New York Times

There are just 15 electric public buses on the streets of New York, out of a fleet of more than 5,900 buses. There is just a single electric police patrol car, a Tesla, and only one electric garbage truck.

And in a city with nearly 1.9 million registered passenger vehicles, zero-emission vehicles make up less than one percent.

Despite the urgent need to move away from burning fossil fuels that accelerate climate change, the nation’s largest city is embracing electric vehicles at a tortoise-like pace and lagging behind other major American cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle.

As a result, New York will have to work much harder to adopt greener options, including meeting an ambitious goal of electrifying its municipal fleet of nearly 30,000 vehicles, from ambulances to the car that carries the mayor, by 2035.

Are carbon credits really helping with climate change?

|

Are carbon credits really helping with climate change?

COEYMANS — When a clutch of local officials and dignitaries gathered in late 2019 to celebrate the first check they received for protecting the woodlands around the Alcove Reservoir, they hailed the deal as a win for the environment locally and globally. The Albany Water Board had agreed to protect the approximately 6,400 acres of forest around the reservoir in exchange for annual payments from the sale of carbon credits.

It was one of the first local examples of an emerging market in carbon credits, or offsets, designed to protect forests, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and combat global warming.

The carbon capture represented by preserving the forest was sold on the American Carbon Registry, a leading market for such credits.

Figuring that most of the doings in climate change amount to hucksterism, I don't see the harm in local governments profiting off it. Indeed, maybe this kind of climate change hucksterism can be transformed into a force of good, protecting forest and farmland from development. For example, a town or developer could sell development rights in exchange for carbon credits cash. And maybe long-term preservation of an ecosystem is more important then some inconsequential reduction of carbon. And certainly better then paving over acres and acres of land for a solar farm that doesn't even produce that much electricity compared to a conventional fossil plant.