NEW YORK — As Gov. Kathy Hochul deals with fallout from a pair of recent controversial environmental decisions, she’s facing pressure to delay implementation of legislation to electrify new buildings in the state.
The All-Electric Buildings Act, sponsored by state Assemblymember Emily Gallagher and state Sen. Liz Krueger, both Democrats, would mandate that smaller, newly constructed buildings only use electric power starting next year. The legislation was enacted as part of the 2023-2024 state budget, but is encountering resistance from moderate Democrats as energy affordability becomes an increasingly potent political issue.
A new report by Switchbox, a nonpartisan think tank focused on state climate policy, found that implementing the requirement won’t cause grid reliability issues in the short term and will only have a minor impact on winter demand in the long term.
Implementing the law “is affordable [and] achievable. It’s been achieved in other places, and the market will correct for anything that could possibly go wrong,” Gallagher said in an interview. “The real concern is that very powerful lobbyists don’t want this to happen.”
