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Just In! for March 23, 2024
The weekly newsletter of the New York Geothermal Energy Organization (NY-GEO)
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Just In! is NY-GEO's weekly news feed for members. See more information on memberships here. If we send you a complimentary copy and you're not a member of NY-GEO, it means we value your role in the transition to renewable heating, but without a membership, please don't count on getting Just In! weekly. For past issues, check out the Just In! Archive available on the NY-GEO.org website. | |
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NY-GEO 2024 CONFERENCES –
See details in the 2024 listings in the Events section below in green type.
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Senate Passes NY HEAT Act as Part of Rate Payer Protection Package of Bills – “Legislation Includes NY HEAT Act to Meet Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act Standards…The New York State Senate today passed legislation to further protect utility ratepayers across New York State and continue its commitment to the objectives of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. This legislative package continues the work of the Senate Majority ‘to support working families and fight New York’s affordability crisis by prioritizing the interests of consumers and holding utility companies accountable.’ “ Read the Senate Majority press release. |  | |
One Pager on the Cost of Unneeded Gas Infrastructure - Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC) has developed a new infographic on the NY HEAT Act. Using figures from the BDC Future of Gas in New York State report, the Infographic explains how NY HEAT will protect families from having to spend billions on NY's outdated natural gas system over the coming years. Link to the pdf here.
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Gas Industry Blocks Building Codes Meant to Make Going Electric Cheaper – Alexander C. Kaufman – “The natural gas industry pulled off an 11th-hour victory in its campaign to strip climate-friendly rules out of the latest update to the homebuilding guidelines used in most of the United States. Houses and commercial buildings constructed to this year’s standards were supposed to include the circuitry for hooking up electric appliances or car chargers, potentially adding a few thousand dollars to a new home’s asking price but saving homeowners tens of thousands in renovation costs to rewire existing walls and even more on utility bills… On Wednesday night, the ICC’s (International Code Council’s) board of directors took the unusual step of going against its own experts to side with the fossil fuel companies, scrapping key codes meant to make electric cars, solar panels, induction stoves and heat pumps more affordable. Instead, almost every code the trade groups challenged will now be relegated to the optional appendix section of the codebook, essentially eliminating the chances of widespread adoption across the country." Article link here.
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Dandelion’s Hannun Named a CNBC 2024 Changemaker – “CNBC Changemakers: Women Transforming Business is an annual list spotlighting women whose accomplishments have left an indelible mark on the business world…Hannun, co-founder and President of Dandelion Energy, is one of 50 women named to this year’s list, which also includes singer Taylor Swift. Said Hannun: “The challenge is not to invent a breakthrough moonshot new technology that’s never existed…The challenge is take something that’s actually existed for a long time and just figure out how to … make it affordable and practical.” Article link here.
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IGSHPA and GeoExchange announce April as National Geothermal Month. Learn more and celebrate geothermal here.
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Nurses Advocate for NY Heat Act and Geo Tax Credit Hike: The Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment (ANHE) is organizing lobbying on several initiatives in NY State. Among the bills they are working on are the NY HEAT Act, the Geothermal Tax Credit Cap Increase, the Climate Superfund Act and the Green Affordable Pre-Electrification Fund. ANHE link here.
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Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment Staff and Team
NY’s Draft Energy Code - Slated to Include All Electric New Builds - Is Delayed – NYS Department of State, (DOS) NYSERDA did not provide the New York Building Code Council with an updated version of the NYS Energy Code in time for its quarterly meeting Friday 3/22, partly due to the fact that the International Code Council 2024 model energy code has been delayed by appeals from the fossil fuel industry which, as noted above, were successful in stripping out electrification requirements. It is now anticipated that DOS and NYSERDA will be providing the public and NYS Building Code Council with the updated NYS Energy Code, version 3.0 at their Friday, June 28, 2024 meeting.
Exit Interview with DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos – Austin C. Jerfferson – City & State - “But that was a really unique moment in time when that much smoke came out of so many fires in Canada. Literally in a day, we went from some of the best air quality in the world to literally the worst air quality in the world. I don't know that anyone expected that would have ever happened, but it was a very stark reminder that the planet is changing, changing in ways that are less predictable, and we need to have very competent operators who can make judgments about how to protect public health along the way and pivot very quickly in the depth of these situations.” Interview link here.
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National Grid Announces $4 Billion “Upstate Upgrade” – Reuters- "The U.S. unit of Britain's National Grid said on Wednesday it would invest more than $4 billion to improve New York's infrastructure to meet growing demand for more reliable and cleaner energy. It would be the company's largest investment in the state's electricity transmission system, most of which was built more than a century ago. The energy firm said the investment program named 'Upstate Upgrade', which includes more than 70 projects through 2030, would generate jobs and more than $1 billion in additional economic gains… National Grid said it would construct or rebuild more than 1,000 miles of transmission line and 45 substations." Article link here.
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Should Cap & Invest Be Sector Specific? – Alan Krupnick, Molly Robertson, and Wesley Look from Resources for the Future (RFF) and Eddie Bautista and Eunice Ko from NYC-Environmental Justice Alliance (EJA) – “In a new report, a research team finds that a cap-trade-and-invest policy that includes emissions caps for the residential, transportation, and electric power sectors, as well as specific caps for each power plant, can reduce emissions near disadvantaged communities without increasing program costs.” Press release and link to the 22-page report (+appendices) here.
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NY Senate Passes Ban on CO2 Fracking - On March 20th, the NY Senate passed Senator Lea Webb’s bill (S8357) to ban gas fracking with carbon dioxide, by a vote of 40 to 22. The bill had already passed in the Assembly and now goes to Governor Hochul for her signature. Press release here.
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Germany Launches Planning for Gas Grid Retirements - Sören Amelang, Edgar Meza – Clean Energy Wire – “The German government has kickstarted the planning for a gradual decommissioning of the country’s gas distribution network in order to organise a smooth transition to climate-neutral heating for consumers and operators. Grids for the existing natural gas supply will no longer be needed in their current form and scope once the country approaches its target of becoming climate neutral by 2045, the economy ministry said in a green paper. ‘It is crucial that a continuous, affordable energy supply for end consumers is guaranteed during the transformation phase…’ ‘’ Article link here.
Gas Utility Long-term Plans Rejected in Oregon - Jefferson Public Radio - Justin Higginbottom – “A proposal from Cascade Natural Gas to cut greenhouse gas emissions was refused last week. That comes after the Oregon Public Utilities Commission last year shot down plans by NW Natural and Southern Oregon provider Avista. The industry must now figure out better ways to satisfy the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s Climate Protection Program. JPR’s Justin Higginbottom spoke with Alex Baumhardt, environment reporter at the nonprofit newsroom the Oregon Capital Chronicle, who broke the story about what the commission found lacking in those plans.” Interview here.
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Reporter Alex Baumhardt
City & State Reviews NY Legislature’s Week Re Environment & Climate – Austin C, Jefferson – “From Hudson River clean-up to natural gas hook-ups, lawmakers took action on protecting the state’s natural resources. There’s been a flurry of climate actions in Albany this week between lawmakers passing bills, activists holding rallies and calls to action for government agencies. Some of the activity even extended to Washington. Just in time for budget negotiations, advocates for New York’s environment are turning up the heat. The state is reportedly not on track to meet its 2030 climate goals. With a sustainable future for New Yorkers in doubt, some feel there isn’t time to waste.” Article link here.
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Green New Deal for Housing – Eugene Daniels - POLITICO - “…a group of lawmakers led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)… gather(ed) to relaunch a so-called “Green New Deal for Public Housing.” The goal of the legislation, Ocasio-Cortez told POLITICO in an exclusive interview, is to ‘reimagine and reinvigorate public housing in the United States,’ while addressing ‘many of the environmental injustices that public housing residents have faced.’ It’s the latest sign that Democrats across the ideological spectrum are zeroing in on housing as an under-addressed issue that could carry a huge upside politically. It comes on the heels of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in which he outlined a plan to lower housing costs that he’s now taking on the road.” Article link here.
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In the ‘Armpit of the Universe,’ a Window into the Persistent Inequities of Environmental Policy – Kiley Bense & Victoria St. Martin – Inside Climate News – “Researchers found that the effectiveness of the Clean Air Act is often a function of race and socio-economic factors. In Clairton, Pennsylvania, residents say they see that firsthand…Germaine Gooden-Patterson has lived in Clairton, Pennsylvania, for more than 15 years, but it wasn’t until she began a job as a community health worker in 2019 that she understood how much air pollution was affecting her neighbors’ lives—and her own…” Article link here.
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Fossil Fuel Subsidies Seem Impossible To Kill – Lisa Friedman – The New York Times – Big oil, along with Republicans in Congress and some Democrats, has defeated repeated attempts by former President Obama and President Joe Biden to eliminate federal subsidies, some of which have been in place for about a century. Estimates for the subsidies vary widely, but the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development put the total at $14 billion in 2022. A New York Times analysis of lobbying reports found that energy companies have spent more than $30 million since Mr. Biden was elected. Article link here.
|  | Squeezing More Power Out of Transmission Lines – Dan Gearino – Inside Climate News – “A sensor about the size of a bowling ball can measure the real-time temperature of a transmission line. With this information, the operator can safely increase the level of power flowing through the line. The technology has grown in popularity in Europe in recent years, while remaining on the fringes of the U.S. market…Great River Energy, a power provider to rural electric cooperative utilities in Minnesota… decided to use the sensors system wide following a positive experience with a pilot project in which four of the sensors, made by Heimdall Power of Norway, helped to increase the amount of power that could be delivered on a line by up to 42.8 percent. This week, it announced the installation of 52 sensors on lines across the state." Article link here. | |
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Cooking with Smoke – How the Gas Industry Used Tobacco Tactics – The Public Health Law Center (PHLC) – PHLC “was founded over 20 years ago to confront the staggering toll in global mortality and health care costs caused by the commercial tobacco epidemic…In recent years, our staff has been astonished to discover the parallels between methane gas and commercial tobacco, including surprising similarities between the pollutants released by both gas stoves and tobacco, the similarities of health harms from secondhand smoke and gas stoves, and the two industries’ mirror-image deception campaigns designed to conceal those health harms and prevent public awareness and government regulation.” Report link here.
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A Tax Resource for Your Customers – Rewiring America has set up a web page to help those who made 2023 electric upgrades – including geothermal systems – to make sure they maximize available tax credits. And they point out “If you've already filed, you can still amend.” Web page here.
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“Hot Times in the Heartland” Documentary Examines Climate Change Efforts in the Midwest – Greenability – “Hot Times in the Heartland explore(s) regional stories on our warming planet and the solutions underway to strengthen climate resilience. The documentary, produced by Prairie Hollow Productions, focuses on solutions to mitigate the impact of climate change and regional efforts in Kansas City and the greater Kaw Valley area of Kansas. It…features insights from American environmental leaders and authors, Wes Jackson and Bill McKibben…The film is… available to rent and buy on Vimeo.” Article & 8-minute trailer here. |  | |
Wes Jackson: “If we cannot figure out a way to gracefully make that transition, then nature will take care of it for us.”
Biden Rule Would Expand Electric Vehicles – Coral Davenport - NY Times – “The Biden administration issued one of the most significant climate regulations in the nation’s history, a rule designed to ensure that the majority of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States are all-electric or hybrids by 2032…A record 1.2 million electric vehicles rolled off dealers’ lots last year, but they made up just 7.6 percent of total U.S. car sales, far from the 56 percent target under the new regulation. An additional 16 percent of new cars sold would be hybrids.” Article link here ,
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AMOC Is Slowing - One of the Most Dangerous Climate Change Trends – Yellow Dot Studios – This 3 minute video gives a concise look at the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)…(which) “is an ocean system that distributes warm and cold water around the globe , and it’s one of the major earth systems responsible for the climate as we know it. It’s why Ireland and the UK are fairly temperate, while Greenland is covered in ice and snow…The Atlantic current is in a very fragile state, slowing down by 15% since 1950, due in large part to extreme glacial melt in the Antarctic.” The video is based on a paper released in February in the journal Science Advances titled Physics-based early warning signal shows that AMOC is on tipping course. Video link here.
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"We know from a recent study that every tenth of a degree in temperature rise that we prevent keeps 140 million of our brothers and sisters in habitable zones on this planet. And nothing has changed my basic conviction about the key: we need to keep building huge movements to finally break the political power of the fossil fuel industry and force the emergency conversion to clean energy." —Bill McKibben
| You've Got to Be Kidding: | You Expect Me to Believe That? - Tim Robinson – Yellow Dot Studios – “Are you tired of scientists telling us mean bad facts about our world in confusing ways?” This 5-minute humorous video looks at the difficulty science is having getting the facts of climate change across to the public. Video link here. | |
Frequent Sources for Just In! briefs:
Green Energy Times
City & State First Read
POLITICO Weekly NY & NJ Energy email)
Canary Media
National Building Electrification Network & Sunstone Strategies
Just in! thanks NY-GEO board member John Ciovacco of Aztech Geothermal for his frequent proofreading contributions to this publication and Paul Maliszewski for his work on the briefs.
EVENTS:
*Indicates a New Listing or Updated Information
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2024 03 27 – AEE/ASHREA Clean Energy Symposium – 8:00am - 6:00 pm ET, TEC-SMART, Malta, NY – “The Association of Energy Engineers – Capital Region (AEE-CR) and the American Society of Heating and Air-Conditioning Engineers Northeast Chapter (ASHRAE-NE) in conjunction with Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC) are proud to host a day long Symposium at the TEC-SMART facility which features a ground source heat pump (GSHP) system and clean energy laboratories to train students to enter the workforce. Symposium attendees will hear a keynote address from US Representative Paul Tonko and participate in full day of workshops on Thermal Energy Networks, Camus Electrification, Heat Recovery Chillers, and other clean energy topics. Engineering professionals can earn 3 PDH credits.” Learn more and register here.
2024 04 02 – NYSERDA Buildings of Excellence Awards Ceremony - 10:00 am ET – AIA Center for Architecture, 536 La Guardia Place, NY, NY. This ceremony will celebrate the winning high performance, clean and resilient design, and construction projects. This $58 million competition showcases innovative and affordable buildings that are setting new standards for New York’s low carbon buildings of the future! We’re told at least one of the winners is a geothermal project. Register here.
APRIL - IGSHPA and GeoExchange announce April as National Geothermal Month. Learn more and celebrate geothermal here.
2024 04 04 – Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) on Zonal Electrification with Increased Focus on Emissions and Equity – 1:00 – 2:30 pm ET - According to Building Decarbonization Coalition National Director Panama Bartholomy, PG&E has done “amazing work… mapping their gas and electric systems, overlaid with socio-economic and geographic data. This tool is used by the utility to prioritize zones for clipping the gas grid and electrifying all the end uses in a scaled, neighborhood approach. PG&E has invested a lot in this amazing tool and integrated it well into their planning. They offer it to local governments to help them with decarbonization planning and to serve as a basis for partnership with the utility on projects.” Register here.
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NY-GEO 2024 Conferences
Yes, That’s Plural
We are excited to share there will be two conference events in 2024 with content focused on both the diverse residential and commercial markets in New York State. The programs will include dynamic keynote speakers and panels, educational tracks that are relevant and applicable, and an opportunity to network with exhibitors showcasing products and services that will support and advance your knowledge.
2024 04 08 and 09 – NY-GEO 2024 - Spring Conference - Albany – Once again hosted at the Albany Marriott, we bring together the best of the best in the Geothermal Heat Pump Industry. We will open with an exhibitor mixer on April 8 followed by a full day of programming on the 9th with three concurrent tracks – so something for everyone. Exhibit space is sold out with over 50 companies dedicated to building electrification on hand. For information about the educational sessions, to register or make hotel reservations click here. Note: registration fees increase March 31st and hotel conference rate ends on March 25th.
Keynotes Announced for NY-GEO 2024 in Albany – At the Albany conference, Public Service Commission Chair Rory Christian will give the opening keynote. Alexis McKittrick, Program Manager, Low Temperature and Geothermal, U.S. Department of Energy, will be the lunch keynote presenter. To learn more and register click here.
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2024 10 21 to 23 – NY-GEO 2024 –Fall Conference – New York City – The New York Brooklyn Bridge Marriott will host a two-day conference with sessions and four (4) tracks, the NY-GEO Annual Dinner, and a day of local project site tours. This is NY-GEO's first conference Downstate and will emphasize content on how to address densely populated areas and large commercial buildings. To register for NYC and learn more about becoming a sponsor and or exhibitor click here.
NY-GEO Members can attend the conferences at a discounted rate, so now is a good time to renew your membership through 2024.
NY-GEO members: to receive the discounted member rates, employees of your organization must be populated in the member database. Reach out to NY-GEO Executive Director Christine Hoffer at christine@ny-geo.org for assistance.
Not a Member? Click here to Join!
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*2024 04 10 – IGSHPA Town Hall on Advocacy and Marketing – 11:30 am ET – “The IGSHPA Advocacy and Communications Task Force (ACT) will talk about their efforts in this newly formed task force, formerly the Advocacy committee and Marketing committee, now operating as one joint task force. ACT has declared April as National Geothermal Month, and they would like to discuss how we can raise awareness of the technology. Register here.
2024 04 18 – Clean Heat Program Stakeholders Meeting – 9:00-10:00 am ET - (Note: Previously scheduled for March 14) The NYS Clean Heat Utility Joint Management Committee (JMC) will host the next quarterly meeting of the Working Group Series for Participating Contractors and Industry Partners. This series is billed as an ongoing platform for contractors and industry partners affiliated with NYS Clean Heat to discuss program improvements and address questions related to the program. Registration link.
2024 05 28 to 30 – IGSHPA Research Conference - The International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) is pleased to announce that the next IGSHPA Research Conference will be held at Polytechnique Montréal. This is the fourth in a series of research conferences held in Denver (2017), Stockholm (2018), and Las Vegas (2022). Conference website here
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We NEED Your NY-GEO Member Job Postings – Please add any job openings you may have to our NY-GEO Job Listings to gain visibility and help recruit new employees to your organization. This feature is available to all NY-GEO members, simply log into your account, select the NY-GEO Job Listings in the left toolbar, select Add in the upper right, and complete the form. If you need assistance, let us know at christine@ny-geo.org.
The Building Performance Contractors Association (BPCA) Career Center is here.
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Ongoing – NYSERDA is hiring! The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has ongoing recruitment opportunities. All qualified individuals will be evaluated for each relevant position for which they apply. Check this page periodically to learn about new career opportunities. | |
Become an NY-GEO Member
NY GEO is the driving force in the mass adoption of Ground Source (Geothermal) Heat Pumps for residential, commercial, and utility-scale heating and cooling in New York State. NY-GEO's mission is to grow the geothermal heat pump industry and develop its workforce while educating policymakers building/property developers and residents about the benefits of geothermal heat pumps.
We are a member-funded, non-profit trade organization and we depend on YOUR SUPPORT to expand the use of clean, renewable, geothermal heating and cooling systems for the benefit
of all.
Learn more about the benefits of becoming an NY-GEO member and why your membership is important to advancing GHP, Click here.
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