“We're facing two crises that have been a real focus of mine–the climate crisis and the housing crisis. And there's a nexus in the solutions.”
Interview with Jen Metzger by Kendra Salvatore
Leading the way: Solving climate, jobs, energy, affordability, and transportation together
Tell me what you've been thinking about how to communicate about climate change.
I see that as the biggest barrier to getting the change we need at the scale we need and the pace we need to reduce our emissions. I co-founded an organization years ago with nine other women from Rosendale, Citizens for Local Power, now called Communities for Local Power, and directed that organization. We were all about shifting to a locally based clean energy economy. We were very focused on engaging all the communities in Ulster County, across party lines, and we were pretty effective. It's really about how you frame issues. And climate change can be framed in ways that connect with everyone because it touches so many things. A local government perspective and community perspective is about having control over your own energy destiny, and empowering local communities. Energy security and providing energy resonates across party lines, and it's something everyone cares about.
[Citizens for Local Power] was fighting the takeover of Central Hudson, a small, local utility, by a Canadian-based multinational holding company, Fortis. We learned of it only when the Public Service Commission was holding public hearings, when basically the decisions had already been made. But we galvanized officials from the local level to the federal level, thousands and thousands of residents. The administrative law judge for the Public Service Commission in their ruling said they had never seen such an outpouring of concern about their utility. We weren't able to stop it. We were able to extract some concessions, but the acquisition was already too far along in the process. But we had tapped into this feeling that people had no control over what the utility did, where their power came from, and energy costs. I talk a lot about these issues, making the connection for people between their skyrocketing utility bills and the fossil fuel system, and the fact that prices for fossil fuels are set in international markets and are hugely volatile. You have no control over them whatsoever. And getting people to recognize the link between true energy security, energy independence, climate, and control over their own financial situations. A lot of people were very angry at Central Hudson. Their billing system fiasco was inexcusable. But there was also this separate fact that energy supply prices were out of control in response to the war in Ukraine, but that happens all the time; it's just a very volatile sector of the economy.
The climate crisis can feel daunting, and to me it's all about empowering people to take actions that are addressing the crisis, reducing our impact on the global climate, but also making positive changes at the same time in our own lives, communities, and state. You can frame it positively. Out of every crisis comes a new opportunity for positive change. Crises get people to see things in a different way, jolt their status quo and their view on the world. It's an opportunity to forge new paths, and I just see the shift to a more sustainable, clean energy economy as an opportunity for our communities to address all of these other issues at the same time, because they're all connected to the way we have grown and developed over time, to our energy system, and everything else. The quality of our built environment, and indoor air quality in our homes and in a lot of our buildings, is terrible. There is so much research now that demonstrates that gas and propane stoves are really bad for your health. They are responsible for 13% of childhood asthma cases. And as we're moving to zero emission technologies, we're creating healthier environments for ourselves. We're creating climate solutions in transportation that are creating safer communities to walk around in and to cycle. These are things affecting our health and quality of life.
I see that as the biggest barrier to getting the change we need at the scale we need and the pace we need to reduce our emissions. I co-founded an organization years ago with nine other women from Rosendale, Citizens for Local Power, now called Communities for Local Power, and directed that organization. We were all about shifting to a locally based clean energy economy. We were very focused on engaging all the communities in Ulster County, across party lines, and we were pretty effective. It's really about how you frame issues. And climate change can be framed in ways that connect with everyone because it touches so many things. A local government perspective and community perspective is about having control over your own energy destiny, and empowering local communities. Energy security and providing energy resonates across party lines, and it's something everyone cares about.
[Citizens for Local Power] was fighting the takeover of Central Hudson, a small, local utility, by a Canadian-based multinational holding company, Fortis. We learned of it only when the Public Service Commission was holding public hearings, when basically the decisions had already been made. But we galvanized officials from the local level to the federal level, thousands and thousands of residents. The administrative law judge for the Public Service Commission in their ruling said they had never seen such an outpouring of concern about their utility. We weren't able to stop it. We were able to extract some concessions, but the acquisition was already too far along in the process. But we had tapped into this feeling that people had no control over what the utility did, where their power came from, and energy costs. I talk a lot about these issues, making the connection for people between their skyrocketing utility bills and the fossil fuel system, and the fact that prices for fossil fuels are set in international markets and are hugely volatile. You have no control over them whatsoever. And getting people to recognize the link between true energy security, energy independence, climate, and control over their own financial situations. A lot of people were very angry at Central Hudson. Their billing system fiasco was inexcusable. But there was also this separate fact that energy supply prices were out of control in response to the war in Ukraine, but that happens all the time; it's just a very volatile sector of the economy.
The climate crisis can feel daunting, and to me it's all about empowering people to take actions that are addressing the crisis, reducing our impact on the global climate, but also making positive changes at the same time in our own lives, communities, and state. You can frame it positively. Out of every crisis comes a new opportunity for positive change. Crises get people to see things in a different way, jolt their status quo and their view on the world. It's an opportunity to forge new paths, and I just see the shift to a more sustainable, clean energy economy as an opportunity for our communities to address all of these other issues at the same time, because they're all connected to the way we have grown and developed over time, to our energy system, and everything else. The quality of our built environment, and indoor air quality in our homes and in a lot of our buildings, is terrible. There is so much research now that demonstrates that gas and propane stoves are really bad for your health. They are responsible for 13% of childhood asthma cases. And as we're moving to zero emission technologies, we're creating healthier environments for ourselves. We're creating climate solutions in transportation that are creating safer communities to walk around in and to cycle. These are things affecting our health and quality of life.
Citizens for Local Power
Early interest in environmental issues
It's such a task that you undertook to take that big topic and tie it back to people's own utility bill. That's really what it takes. You've been working on climate issues for a long time. Is there one story or emotion that keeps you grounded or keeps you going?
That's hard to say. It's been really cumulative, over my whole life. From a very young age I was very tuned in to what we were doing to our planet. My early years were in Queens, and we would drive past the ConEd power plants, just belching all of this smoke, all of this pollution. There were no controls at that point. It was the 70s. And I used to play this game in my head–if I had a genie in the bottle and three wishes, what would they be? And my first wish was always that I would have this magical box that would just suck all of the pollution in and encapsulate it and I would stick it in a drawer and I'd have clean air. I was six years old. And we had this alley gang of kids, and I remember organizing a litter pickup. This was before there were litter laws. People just used to just throw stuff out their windows. There was not even the culture that you shouldn't throw your garbage on the side of the road. I was very aware of and attuned to that, and concerned about it from a really young age. In college I took some very inspiring classes on environment and society, and I just knew that that was something that I wanted to focus on in my life. I started at the international level, studying international organizations and environmental agreements. My first job out of college was at the United Nations Association, which was a US-based nonprofit that worked with the UN. It was founded by Eleanor Roosevelt. I was organizing hearings in different parts of the country around the first climate negotiations in 1990. In 1992 the first convention was signed. I was very focused on it at that macro level. I went back to school, got my doctorate, started a family, we moved up here, and when I finished my dissertation, I had twin eight-month-olds and a four-year-old and it totally shifted my lens to our community, their community, and I got very involved at the local level. I chaired Rosendale's Environmental Commission for seven years or so.
That's hard to say. It's been really cumulative, over my whole life. From a very young age I was very tuned in to what we were doing to our planet. My early years were in Queens, and we would drive past the ConEd power plants, just belching all of this smoke, all of this pollution. There were no controls at that point. It was the 70s. And I used to play this game in my head–if I had a genie in the bottle and three wishes, what would they be? And my first wish was always that I would have this magical box that would just suck all of the pollution in and encapsulate it and I would stick it in a drawer and I'd have clean air. I was six years old. And we had this alley gang of kids, and I remember organizing a litter pickup. This was before there were litter laws. People just used to just throw stuff out their windows. There was not even the culture that you shouldn't throw your garbage on the side of the road. I was very aware of and attuned to that, and concerned about it from a really young age. In college I took some very inspiring classes on environment and society, and I just knew that that was something that I wanted to focus on in my life. I started at the international level, studying international organizations and environmental agreements. My first job out of college was at the United Nations Association, which was a US-based nonprofit that worked with the UN. It was founded by Eleanor Roosevelt. I was organizing hearings in different parts of the country around the first climate negotiations in 1990. In 1992 the first convention was signed. I was very focused on it at that macro level. I went back to school, got my doctorate, started a family, we moved up here, and when I finished my dissertation, I had twin eight-month-olds and a four-year-old and it totally shifted my lens to our community, their community, and I got very involved at the local level. I chaired Rosendale's Environmental Commission for seven years or so.
Working from the bottom up and neighbor to neighbor
In some of the work that I’m doing we’re talking a lot about grounding change in the idea of community.
The community piece ties in to communications, campaigns, education, and awareness around climate. Face-to-face relationships are the building blocks for addressing the climate crisis. We need action at all the different levels, no one level will suffice, and you can't do it one town at a time. But that bottom-up is critical. And it's missing from the state's climate action strategy. Not the Climate Smart Communities program. That's somewhat different, and it came out of the climate law that we passed when I was in the State Senate. The work you're doing neighbor to neighbor, that's the work that's really going to help build a common understanding of the problem and get people excited around the kinds of solutions that not only reduce emissions, but are good for our communities, good for our well-being.
I'm very into models. That's actually what attracted me to running for county executive. I worked really hard to get the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act passed when I was in the State Senate. And we now need models to really show how we can get there. It's a huge opportunity in this office to create some of those models and share them, and hopefully inspire other communities to do some more.
The community piece ties in to communications, campaigns, education, and awareness around climate. Face-to-face relationships are the building blocks for addressing the climate crisis. We need action at all the different levels, no one level will suffice, and you can't do it one town at a time. But that bottom-up is critical. And it's missing from the state's climate action strategy. Not the Climate Smart Communities program. That's somewhat different, and it came out of the climate law that we passed when I was in the State Senate. The work you're doing neighbor to neighbor, that's the work that's really going to help build a common understanding of the problem and get people excited around the kinds of solutions that not only reduce emissions, but are good for our communities, good for our well-being.
I'm very into models. That's actually what attracted me to running for county executive. I worked really hard to get the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act passed when I was in the State Senate. And we now need models to really show how we can get there. It's a huge opportunity in this office to create some of those models and share them, and hopefully inspire other communities to do some more.
Modeling solutions at the county level
What kind of models?
We're facing two crises that have been a real focus of mine coming in–the climate crisis and the housing crisis. And there's a nexus in the solutions. I have been pushing, and we finally got the legislature to pass, the creation of a green, affordable Housing Action Fund. We're seeding it with $15 million of our fund balance plus I'm proposing to the legislature that we dedicate 25% of our occupancy tax revenues year after year to this fund as well, so that it's sustained on an ongoing basis. It's to catalyze the development of housing that's affordable and climate responsible, all-electric energy efficient. You can't get the funding unless you meet those basic criteria. Part of the objective is educating people about the importance for health, comfort, and quality of life, in addition to the climate benefits. Green housing and green affordable housing is really a climate justice issue.
At the state level, the governor and the legislature just agreed in this last budget, finally, on a legislative change to require energy-efficient, all-electric new construction, which is really the lowest hanging fruit. But they are not starting it until 2026, which is later than what we know is necessary to meet our climate goals. So it's my hope that by doing things like creating this fund, we're catalyzing that action early. And with the right values. It can't just be green housing for the wealthy. It's got to be healthy green housing for everyone, including low-income households and moderate-income households. I want to show that it can be done, and we can do it that way. And similarly, I'm working on an electrification plan. As part of the budget, I'm going to hire an electrification project manager for the county, because we own many buildings, and we have to shift off of fossil fuels. This isn't new construction. These are existing buildings. We have to do this. And again, I want to show that it can be done to the benefit of the county and its residents.
I'll just tell a little story. When I came into this office, I went around to all the different departments to visit them and get to know them and their work. I was visiting the probation department. I walked into the building, and the wallpaper was peeling off the walls, there were horrible moisture problems, and the air quality was terrible. The employees and the people they serve are in these buildings all day long. And as I walked out I thought, okay, this is a priority building to make improvements to.
I have to approve all the contracts that the county departments enter into. And on the list for the month was a contract for a new HVAC system for the probation building. It was just a replacement of the existing fossil fuel combustion system. And I said nope, I'm not signing this contract, we're not doing this. You've got to figure out a way to shift that building to heat pumps, and also address the other issues, such as getting an energy recovery ventilation system in there to improve their air quality. This is something you can do in an executive position, as compared to what I could do when I was in the State Senate. It is now the top building priority for next year in our capital plan. But making those moves and making them now, and then sharing information about the benefits to the people who are in the building, sharing information about costs and potential savings over time—all of that is really important.
We're facing two crises that have been a real focus of mine coming in–the climate crisis and the housing crisis. And there's a nexus in the solutions. I have been pushing, and we finally got the legislature to pass, the creation of a green, affordable Housing Action Fund. We're seeding it with $15 million of our fund balance plus I'm proposing to the legislature that we dedicate 25% of our occupancy tax revenues year after year to this fund as well, so that it's sustained on an ongoing basis. It's to catalyze the development of housing that's affordable and climate responsible, all-electric energy efficient. You can't get the funding unless you meet those basic criteria. Part of the objective is educating people about the importance for health, comfort, and quality of life, in addition to the climate benefits. Green housing and green affordable housing is really a climate justice issue.
At the state level, the governor and the legislature just agreed in this last budget, finally, on a legislative change to require energy-efficient, all-electric new construction, which is really the lowest hanging fruit. But they are not starting it until 2026, which is later than what we know is necessary to meet our climate goals. So it's my hope that by doing things like creating this fund, we're catalyzing that action early. And with the right values. It can't just be green housing for the wealthy. It's got to be healthy green housing for everyone, including low-income households and moderate-income households. I want to show that it can be done, and we can do it that way. And similarly, I'm working on an electrification plan. As part of the budget, I'm going to hire an electrification project manager for the county, because we own many buildings, and we have to shift off of fossil fuels. This isn't new construction. These are existing buildings. We have to do this. And again, I want to show that it can be done to the benefit of the county and its residents.
I'll just tell a little story. When I came into this office, I went around to all the different departments to visit them and get to know them and their work. I was visiting the probation department. I walked into the building, and the wallpaper was peeling off the walls, there were horrible moisture problems, and the air quality was terrible. The employees and the people they serve are in these buildings all day long. And as I walked out I thought, okay, this is a priority building to make improvements to.
I have to approve all the contracts that the county departments enter into. And on the list for the month was a contract for a new HVAC system for the probation building. It was just a replacement of the existing fossil fuel combustion system. And I said nope, I'm not signing this contract, we're not doing this. You've got to figure out a way to shift that building to heat pumps, and also address the other issues, such as getting an energy recovery ventilation system in there to improve their air quality. This is something you can do in an executive position, as compared to what I could do when I was in the State Senate. It is now the top building priority for next year in our capital plan. But making those moves and making them now, and then sharing information about the benefits to the people who are in the building, sharing information about costs and potential savings over time—all of that is really important.
Engaging young people through the Climate Corps
Ulster County Climate Corps internship program
Local things make people feel they can contribute to solving a problem. And I think that giving people a role is really powerful. People also want to know how what they’re doing in their communities can scale beyond that.
You can see it in your own community. You can affect change at a local level more quickly than you can at that broader level. I want to talk with you about the Climate Corps program that I started. I have two 19-year-olds and a 23-year-old and motherhood has definitely made it more urgent for me. I always cared about it, but I am so focused on what world am I leaving to them. I talk about that a lot with people too. There's so much anxiety among young people around climate. There are mental health issues. So I created the corps, Ulster County Climate Corps. It’s the first county program like it in the state. It's a paid summer internship, with $17 an hour for 16-year-olds and up. The goal is, first, to introduce them to public service, get them involved in government, and start building the bench for the future. But also to tangibly engage them in working on climate solutions, and channel that anxiety into something positive and meaningful. And we had the best group, of 17 Climate Corps interns–a few high school students, most were college students, a couple of recent graduates, and one older adult. And they were all working on incredible projects that really moved the needle for the county. It was so productive. We embedded them in different departments. I issued an executive order in January on climate that touched virtually every single department in county government. There were interns who knew how to code and were working on information services, helping us develop a climate dashboard, which is going to help engage residents and businesses in the projects we're doing and also give them access to resources they might not otherwise know about. Others were working with our Emergency Services Department on developing a climate change adaptation annex to our Emergency Management Plan for the county. Some were doing mapping, identifying vulnerable households in rural areas of the county where their driveways were in 500-foot floodplains, to help our Emergency Management Services Department develop a response plan in case of flooding. Really valuable projects. Another intern was a nuclear physics student at Rensselaer and she did this assessment of electrification of all county buildings and costs and developed a mini capital plan. They were doing things that were incredibly valuable. And in my budget for next year I'm going to propose to expand the program to 24 interns. It was a great experience for them and they all went well beyond our expectations. They worked on the projects that we had come up with, and then they developed their own project, because they were just so into it. It's tapping into youth and engaging them. There was a huge response when we put out the application. It was tapping into something that is big for this generation, and they want to be a part of it. This is also a way to get young people involved generally, because a lot of them feel like government isn't serving them, or their interests, and are disengaged from the political scene. And this is a way to engage them.
You can see it in your own community. You can affect change at a local level more quickly than you can at that broader level. I want to talk with you about the Climate Corps program that I started. I have two 19-year-olds and a 23-year-old and motherhood has definitely made it more urgent for me. I always cared about it, but I am so focused on what world am I leaving to them. I talk about that a lot with people too. There's so much anxiety among young people around climate. There are mental health issues. So I created the corps, Ulster County Climate Corps. It’s the first county program like it in the state. It's a paid summer internship, with $17 an hour for 16-year-olds and up. The goal is, first, to introduce them to public service, get them involved in government, and start building the bench for the future. But also to tangibly engage them in working on climate solutions, and channel that anxiety into something positive and meaningful. And we had the best group, of 17 Climate Corps interns–a few high school students, most were college students, a couple of recent graduates, and one older adult. And they were all working on incredible projects that really moved the needle for the county. It was so productive. We embedded them in different departments. I issued an executive order in January on climate that touched virtually every single department in county government. There were interns who knew how to code and were working on information services, helping us develop a climate dashboard, which is going to help engage residents and businesses in the projects we're doing and also give them access to resources they might not otherwise know about. Others were working with our Emergency Services Department on developing a climate change adaptation annex to our Emergency Management Plan for the county. Some were doing mapping, identifying vulnerable households in rural areas of the county where their driveways were in 500-foot floodplains, to help our Emergency Management Services Department develop a response plan in case of flooding. Really valuable projects. Another intern was a nuclear physics student at Rensselaer and she did this assessment of electrification of all county buildings and costs and developed a mini capital plan. They were doing things that were incredibly valuable. And in my budget for next year I'm going to propose to expand the program to 24 interns. It was a great experience for them and they all went well beyond our expectations. They worked on the projects that we had come up with, and then they developed their own project, because they were just so into it. It's tapping into youth and engaging them. There was a huge response when we put out the application. It was tapping into something that is big for this generation, and they want to be a part of it. This is also a way to get young people involved generally, because a lot of them feel like government isn't serving them, or their interests, and are disengaged from the political scene. And this is a way to engage them.
Making changes in transportation
One of your priorities is transportation. What is the problem with transportation, and how can I and others be more engaged with that?
Transportation is 31% or 32% of our emissions in New York State. At the very personal, individual level, I made this pledge to myself years ago that I would never drive into town. I just walk or ride my bike, and just do it. There are things we can all do to reduce our carbon footprint, and that's what it's going to take. We all have to be doing our part in these very individual ways.
When I was on the Town Board in Rosendale and on the Environmental Commission, I worked on and got a grant from the DEC to install an EV charging facility down in our municipal parking lot behind the movie theater. I got the Chamber of Commerce to pay for the electricity for two years. The project was also an educational one for the community. I talked to businesses about how people who drive EVs are looking for cool places to charge their car, walk around, and do things. It's a tourism tool. And I helped some other towns get that same grant for their charging infrastructure, in Gardiner and New Paltz. Think about where those needs are in your community. And it is local government applying for it. So you've got to get the Town Board or the ECC to work on the applications.
[On] Rochester Heritage Day, I talked with an older gentleman who got rid of his car and is relying entirely on UCAT to get around—to get to a doctor in Kingston, to go to Ellenville, to visit friends, to go to his dentist, or to something in Woodstock. He takes it everywhere. We're doing this optimization assessment of our bus system now in the next year. And there're going to be some public meetings to get input on connections, where it's important to have service, or what's underserved now that should be better served.
Thinking about that kind of planning, I ran into [Rochester Town Supervisor] Mike Baden the other day, and we were talking about housing. He said they were working on their zoning for housing, which is great. Towns have total control over land use, how we develop and where we develop. And that has such a major impact on climate, because when you are building all these houses out far from anything, that sprawl is just increasing emissions, essentially.
Transportation is 31% or 32% of our emissions in New York State. At the very personal, individual level, I made this pledge to myself years ago that I would never drive into town. I just walk or ride my bike, and just do it. There are things we can all do to reduce our carbon footprint, and that's what it's going to take. We all have to be doing our part in these very individual ways.
When I was on the Town Board in Rosendale and on the Environmental Commission, I worked on and got a grant from the DEC to install an EV charging facility down in our municipal parking lot behind the movie theater. I got the Chamber of Commerce to pay for the electricity for two years. The project was also an educational one for the community. I talked to businesses about how people who drive EVs are looking for cool places to charge their car, walk around, and do things. It's a tourism tool. And I helped some other towns get that same grant for their charging infrastructure, in Gardiner and New Paltz. Think about where those needs are in your community. And it is local government applying for it. So you've got to get the Town Board or the ECC to work on the applications.
[On] Rochester Heritage Day, I talked with an older gentleman who got rid of his car and is relying entirely on UCAT to get around—to get to a doctor in Kingston, to go to Ellenville, to visit friends, to go to his dentist, or to something in Woodstock. He takes it everywhere. We're doing this optimization assessment of our bus system now in the next year. And there're going to be some public meetings to get input on connections, where it's important to have service, or what's underserved now that should be better served.
Thinking about that kind of planning, I ran into [Rochester Town Supervisor] Mike Baden the other day, and we were talking about housing. He said they were working on their zoning for housing, which is great. Towns have total control over land use, how we develop and where we develop. And that has such a major impact on climate, because when you are building all these houses out far from anything, that sprawl is just increasing emissions, essentially.
Climate and housing: A nexus of solutions
I’d love to hear more about helping people connect to state or federal resources related to climate.
Can I tell you a huge thing that's so valuable for neighbor to neighbor? This gets to the importance of actions at all different levels, but really what happens at the local level is so important. The Inflation Reduction Act is huge. (This is a totally different subject, but the amount of derision that President Biden gets–he has championed legislation that way exceeded anything Obama or anyone else has ever done.) The Inflation Reduction Act alone, if Republicans don't claw back resources, is going to have an enormous impact on shifting this country in the right direction. There are all of these resources that are becoming available–financial assistance, incentives, rebates, especially for low- and moderate-income households. Essentially low-income households can get up to 100% of their improvements covered. There is a lot of financial assistance available for energy-efficiency improvements to people's homes—weatherization, heat pumps, the first rebate ever for induction stoves, heat pump dryers. There's this huge investment in helping residents decarbonize their buildings, people have to know about those and be connected with it. And that is a public information education campaign, door-to-door work. Have you gotten a home energy audit? Did you know they're free in New York State? It will tell you everything that is wrong with your house. And the paybacks on the investments and everything else. You can connect people with all of these resources to make the changes they need to make.
The largest source of climate-damaging emissions in New York State is our buildings—a third of our emissions, slightly more than transportation. And it's primarily because of heating and hot water systems that are fossil fuel combustion based. We have some of the oldest building stock in the country. A lot of these buildings were built before there were energy codes and it's going to take a lot to eliminate those emissions. Replacing fossil fuel based systems with heat pumps is great. But you have to weatherize your homes; you have to insulate them; you have to make sure that they're efficient; or you're still going to be spending more money than you need to on energy. And you're going to be putting systems into your buildings that are oversized. So there's a huge educational component . Do people know that there are these resources available? Right now. What has been rolled out are all the tax incentives. There are a lot of tax incentives right now for residential, for homeowners, for building improvements, and also for EV. But the rebates are going to be rolling out. It has to be implemented by the states. And those are going to be of the most value, especially to low-income and moderate-income households, because they don't have the tax appetite to take advantage of tax incentives. And those will be coming out in the next year. So really informing people of what they can do, and that the first action they can take is getting a NYSERDA certified energy audit done, and that will start the process of connecting them with the improvements and the rebates, et cetera. It'll save people money now. And it'll improve their health and their comfort in their homes. But people don't know about this, don't think about it. And that's really an educational thing.
How are these emissions distributed? Is it all residential?
It's all residential. We have five and a half million single-family homes in New York State and a small fraction of those are efficient, and a much smaller fraction of those use geothermal or air source heat pumps. The vast majority rely on oil and gas. There's another 6.2 million residential buildings overall in New York State, and the rest are multifamily. But it's those single-family homes in areas like ours. And when you really start looking around with a focus on our built environment—I’m often struck by how it's falling apart. People can't keep up with their homes. They're very old buildings. So connecting people with resources is really important. The county government is in the services business. We have the Department of Social Services that administers HEAP and SNAP and emergency housing and all of these programs for vulnerable populations. It's an enormous opportunity. We know, as a county government, who the 3,000 HEAP customers are, the people who can't afford their fuel bills. Rather than just giving them assistance to pay these bills, but they're going to be stuck in the same system for eternity, we should be connecting them with these resources within NYSERDA and the EmPower+ program where they can get 100% of their cost of upgrades to their home for free. They should be enrolled in these programs. I'm trying to create a new model. Every county has a department of social services. We can integrate clean energy resources into their work; when they're providing SNAP benefits, when they're doing all of that processing with residents, they should be talking about this option.
And the iPark87 Workforce Innovation Center is a huge priority. In New York State the modeling has been done and if we stay on track to meet our emissions reduction targets that are in the law, we will add almost 180,000 new jobs, green jobs, to the economy by 2030. In just seven years. And almost 270,000 jobs by 2050. That's unprecedented. There's never been a time where we've added that many jobs to the economy, in that short a time, probably since the industrial revolution.
But the problem is we don't have the workforce. So this is also an opportunity. We have to create that workforce. We can also be creating family-sustaining jobs if we make the investments and provide access to those job opportunities to the folks that have been left out. This is working mothers, primarily, mothers who would like to work but can't because they don't have childcare. People who don't own a car and can't get to work. Eighteen percent of Ellenville residents don't own a car; and maybe 14% of residents in Kingston. And that really limits your opportunities.
This gets back to the public transit issue. The Workforce Innovation Center at iPark is going to have regular, free UCAT service. It's going to provide childcare and it's going to integrate all of our educational partners, SUNY New Paltz, SUNY Ulster, Ulster BOCES, and community-based organizations, especially organizations working with communities of color, and disadvantaged communities, to create the educational and training programs to connect people with these jobs. That's a huge initiative.
It will also be a magnet for companies. It's manufacturing jobs and also trades jobs making all of the improvements in the built environment. It's at iPark, but it's also throughout the whole economy.
These are people’s experiences in their daily lives and obstacles that they face.
I had an interaction at one event with an elderly woman. She had just heard me speak about climate plans. And she said, “I live in a really, really old house. I live by myself. It's really drafty and uncomfortable, but there's nothing I can do. I don't have the money to fix these things.” And I said, “You probably qualify for the NYSERDA EmPower+ program and can get all of that for free.” And I pulled out my phone and pulled up the site and the application. Her eyes just welled up with tears. She was so grateful. It makes me want to cry. She just didn't know.
Can I tell you a huge thing that's so valuable for neighbor to neighbor? This gets to the importance of actions at all different levels, but really what happens at the local level is so important. The Inflation Reduction Act is huge. (This is a totally different subject, but the amount of derision that President Biden gets–he has championed legislation that way exceeded anything Obama or anyone else has ever done.) The Inflation Reduction Act alone, if Republicans don't claw back resources, is going to have an enormous impact on shifting this country in the right direction. There are all of these resources that are becoming available–financial assistance, incentives, rebates, especially for low- and moderate-income households. Essentially low-income households can get up to 100% of their improvements covered. There is a lot of financial assistance available for energy-efficiency improvements to people's homes—weatherization, heat pumps, the first rebate ever for induction stoves, heat pump dryers. There's this huge investment in helping residents decarbonize their buildings, people have to know about those and be connected with it. And that is a public information education campaign, door-to-door work. Have you gotten a home energy audit? Did you know they're free in New York State? It will tell you everything that is wrong with your house. And the paybacks on the investments and everything else. You can connect people with all of these resources to make the changes they need to make.
The largest source of climate-damaging emissions in New York State is our buildings—a third of our emissions, slightly more than transportation. And it's primarily because of heating and hot water systems that are fossil fuel combustion based. We have some of the oldest building stock in the country. A lot of these buildings were built before there were energy codes and it's going to take a lot to eliminate those emissions. Replacing fossil fuel based systems with heat pumps is great. But you have to weatherize your homes; you have to insulate them; you have to make sure that they're efficient; or you're still going to be spending more money than you need to on energy. And you're going to be putting systems into your buildings that are oversized. So there's a huge educational component . Do people know that there are these resources available? Right now. What has been rolled out are all the tax incentives. There are a lot of tax incentives right now for residential, for homeowners, for building improvements, and also for EV. But the rebates are going to be rolling out. It has to be implemented by the states. And those are going to be of the most value, especially to low-income and moderate-income households, because they don't have the tax appetite to take advantage of tax incentives. And those will be coming out in the next year. So really informing people of what they can do, and that the first action they can take is getting a NYSERDA certified energy audit done, and that will start the process of connecting them with the improvements and the rebates, et cetera. It'll save people money now. And it'll improve their health and their comfort in their homes. But people don't know about this, don't think about it. And that's really an educational thing.
How are these emissions distributed? Is it all residential?
It's all residential. We have five and a half million single-family homes in New York State and a small fraction of those are efficient, and a much smaller fraction of those use geothermal or air source heat pumps. The vast majority rely on oil and gas. There's another 6.2 million residential buildings overall in New York State, and the rest are multifamily. But it's those single-family homes in areas like ours. And when you really start looking around with a focus on our built environment—I’m often struck by how it's falling apart. People can't keep up with their homes. They're very old buildings. So connecting people with resources is really important. The county government is in the services business. We have the Department of Social Services that administers HEAP and SNAP and emergency housing and all of these programs for vulnerable populations. It's an enormous opportunity. We know, as a county government, who the 3,000 HEAP customers are, the people who can't afford their fuel bills. Rather than just giving them assistance to pay these bills, but they're going to be stuck in the same system for eternity, we should be connecting them with these resources within NYSERDA and the EmPower+ program where they can get 100% of their cost of upgrades to their home for free. They should be enrolled in these programs. I'm trying to create a new model. Every county has a department of social services. We can integrate clean energy resources into their work; when they're providing SNAP benefits, when they're doing all of that processing with residents, they should be talking about this option.
And the iPark87 Workforce Innovation Center is a huge priority. In New York State the modeling has been done and if we stay on track to meet our emissions reduction targets that are in the law, we will add almost 180,000 new jobs, green jobs, to the economy by 2030. In just seven years. And almost 270,000 jobs by 2050. That's unprecedented. There's never been a time where we've added that many jobs to the economy, in that short a time, probably since the industrial revolution.
But the problem is we don't have the workforce. So this is also an opportunity. We have to create that workforce. We can also be creating family-sustaining jobs if we make the investments and provide access to those job opportunities to the folks that have been left out. This is working mothers, primarily, mothers who would like to work but can't because they don't have childcare. People who don't own a car and can't get to work. Eighteen percent of Ellenville residents don't own a car; and maybe 14% of residents in Kingston. And that really limits your opportunities.
This gets back to the public transit issue. The Workforce Innovation Center at iPark is going to have regular, free UCAT service. It's going to provide childcare and it's going to integrate all of our educational partners, SUNY New Paltz, SUNY Ulster, Ulster BOCES, and community-based organizations, especially organizations working with communities of color, and disadvantaged communities, to create the educational and training programs to connect people with these jobs. That's a huge initiative.
It will also be a magnet for companies. It's manufacturing jobs and also trades jobs making all of the improvements in the built environment. It's at iPark, but it's also throughout the whole economy.
These are people’s experiences in their daily lives and obstacles that they face.
I had an interaction at one event with an elderly woman. She had just heard me speak about climate plans. And she said, “I live in a really, really old house. I live by myself. It's really drafty and uncomfortable, but there's nothing I can do. I don't have the money to fix these things.” And I said, “You probably qualify for the NYSERDA EmPower+ program and can get all of that for free.” And I pulled out my phone and pulled up the site and the application. Her eyes just welled up with tears. She was so grateful. It makes me want to cry. She just didn't know.
"Working together, we can build a sustainable, resilient, strong local economy that leaves no one behind."
—Jen Metzger, running for re-election as Ulster County Executive
