Albany, N.Y. (WBEN) - During an extensive joint hearing on the proposed New York State budget, state lawmakers heard testimony Tuesday from the co-chairs of the Climate Action Council regarding Governor Hochul's plan to become all-electric and fade away from gas appliances and use of fossil fuels.
Following the hearing, Republican Senator George Borrello told WBEN this appears to pushing forward, despite questions and concerns raised by his colleagues and himself.
"Myself, my colleagues, and experts in the energy industry have pointed out the flaws of this timeline, especially eliminating natural gas and trying to rely on technology that does not even exist yet," said the senator. "And yet, this has not deterred any of my colleagues. On the other side of the aisle at this point, they are still fully supporting the elimination of natural gas and other reliable forms of energy for an uncertain future, in my opinion."
Democratic Assemblyman from Tonawanda, Bill Conrad said there are some things that he wants addressed, but noted nothing is yet set in stone.
"Nothing's final," said Assemblyman Conrad. "This is just essentially, the governor's proposal. The Assembly and the Senate have to chime in, we discuss. I'm hearing a lot from my constituents. I'm personally not in favor of any plan to force residents to retrofit their homes. You know, I personally believe, you know, we need industry leadership and stateside development of technology to make this transition affordable and feasible. And I totally favor incentivizing voluntary transitions, over any enforced ban."
WBEN's Domenic Cortese recently conducted an extensive interview with co-chairs of the Climate Action Council, NYSERDA President Doreen Harris and DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos.
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Assemblyman Conrad noted the significant weather challenges that Western New Yorkers have faced, including the deadly blizzard and is looking to get his questions addressed in order for him to consider moving forward on these plans.
"People are feeling very anxious about the technology around whether it's geothermal or air source heat pumps. And there needs to be, I think, significant buy in from the community with clear messaging and evidence that really kind of prepares people for what's coming," said the assemblyman.
"Before we do anything going forward, I have many questions. Is it reliable? Is it going to work in our climate? You know, there's a number of things that even the scoping plan that was put forth by the governor acknowledges, in certain areas, this technology, the grid, reliability, all those issues that people are have questions about, and I have the same questions."
Senator Borrello says there have been no compromises or changes in response to questions raised. As a ranking member of the agriculture committee, Borrello posed a question to the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, Richard Ball.
"I said, 'How are our farms going to eliminate natural gas, particularly, when you have to new construction in just a couple of years?' You cannot, for example, can construct a new barn, or a new greenhouse that operates on natural gas," said Senator Borrello. "And his response was, 'There's an exemption for that conversion.' However, there is no specific language in the bills that would exempt agriculture. So there's a lot of cross talk a lot of backpedaling, and at this point, a lot of dishonesty. So the compromise? There's no compromise."
As far as compromise, according to Assemblyman Conrad, it's just too early to be thinking about changes when the there has been no bill passing. "The governor's put forth an idea there are bills in the assembly, but none of them have passed, or have come to the floor for debate. So I think the point I want to drive home is, nothing is final. And again, we need to make sure that we have reliable energy resources, and really an infrastructure that can support anything before we do any switches. And I just don't think we're there right now."