New York State Climate Action Council Announces Public Hearing Schedule

April and May Public Hearings at Upstate and Downstate Locations to Provide Public Opportunities to Share Input on Draft Scoping Plan

Public Comment Period Extended through June 10, 2022

New York State's 22-member Climate Action Council, established under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), will hold 10 public hearings across the State to receive public input on the Draft Scoping Plan and advance work on a Final Scoping Plan to guide the implementation of the State's nation-leading climate goals under the CLCPA.

The Council released the Draft Scoping Plan on Dec. 30, 2021, and is accepting public comments on the draft through June 10, 2022. The Council extended the comment period beyond 120 days to allow for additional public input.

The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Co-Chairs of the Climate Action Council, today announced eight in-person hearings in locations across the State, as well as two virtual hearings. In-person hearings will also be live-streamed to allow for remote viewing of the proceedings. All persons, organizations, corporations, and government agencies are encouraged to attend the public hearings and to submit oral or written comments.

If in-person hearings cannot be held due to changing COVID-19 health and safety guidelines, hearings will shift to virtual at the same date and time. Each participant will be given two minutes to address the Climate Action Council. Lengthy statements should be submitted in writing and summarized for oral presentation. PowerPoint presentations are not allowed, but individuals may provide written supporting documents or visuals.

Pre-registration is encouraged but not required for the in-person hearings. Priority in seating and speaking will be given to those who pre-register. Individuals can pre-register at the Climate Act website. Hearings will be webcast for viewing purposes only, professionally recorded, and transcribed as part of the official record and posted on the Climate Act website.

Members of the public who want to provide oral comment must attend either in-person or join a virtual hearing. Equal weight will be given to oral and written statements. American sign language and language interpretive services shall be made available upon written request at no charge. Any additional information, including instructions for joining each event remotely to view the proceedings, will be made available prior to each event.

The virtual public hearings will include live captioning in multiple languages. To view live captioning during the virtual hearings, attendees can join the presentation through PowerPoint Live using a computer or smartphone. For details on how to use PowerPoint Live for live captioning, view the PDF.

Written comments can be submitted through June 10, 2022, via the online public comment form, via email to scopingplan@nyserda.ny.gov, or via U.S. Mail to Attention: Draft Scoping Plan Comments, NYSERDA, 17 Columbia Circle, Albany, NY 12203-6399.

For more information about the New York State Climate Action Council, visit the Climate Act website.

New York State's nation-leading climate agenda is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation, calling for an orderly and just transition to clean energy that creates jobs and continues fostering a green economy as New York State recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Enshrined into law through the CLCPA, New York is on a path to achieve its mandate of a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, including 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030, and to reach economy-wide carbon neutrality. It builds on New York's unprecedented investments to ramp-up clean energy including over $33 billion in 102 large-scale renewable and transmission projects across the state, $6.8 billion to reduce buildings emissions, $1.8 billion to scale up solar, more than $1 billion for clean transportation initiatives, and over $1.6 billion in NY Green Bank commitments. Combined, these investments are supporting nearly 158,000 jobs in New York's clean energy sector in 2020, a 2,100 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2011 and a commitment to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035. Under the Climate Act, New York will build on this progress and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, while ensuring that at least 35 percent with a goal of 40 percent of the benefits of clean energy investments are directed to disadvantaged communities, and advance progress towards the state's 2025 energy efficiency target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 trillion BTUs of end-use energy savings.

https://www.dec.ny.gov/press/press.html