ALBANY, New York — Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration claims it is on track to achieve a 2025 energy efficiency target for state buildings, but many of the projects aimed at achieving that goal won’t be completed by then.
One ostensible point of progress — that more than 10 percent of the reported headway is the result of prison closures — isn’t being viewed by advocates as a success story, either.
“The fact that the progress towards this goal is primarily from facilities being shut down, means the state’s not doing enough,” said Liz Moran, New York policy advocate with Earthjustice. “There needs to be more effort put towards the facilities that we have, adopting measures to cut their energy consumption and move towards more sustainable and renewable energy practices.”
The New York Power Authority took responsibility for the goal codified by Hochul in a 2022 executive order. The authority required agencies to report progress under its BuildSmart 2025 initiative, but it hasn’t produced annual reports and discovered gaps in its own data after POLITICO began reporting on the initiative.
