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New York Announces Nation-Leading $1.4B Investment in Renewables
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recently announced $1.4 billion in funding for 26 large-scale renewable energy projects across the state, the single largest commitment to renewable energy by a state in U.S. history.
The awarded projects—including 22 utility-scale solar farms, three wind farms and one hydroelectric project—are expected to create more than 3,000 short- and long-term jobs, generate enough clean energy to power more than 430,000 homes and reduce carbon emissions by more than 1.6 million metric tons, the equivalent of taking nearly 340,000 cars off the road.
The announcement, issued Friday, also included a formal request for the state to be excluded from the federal offshore oil drilling plan, citing fears that a catastrophic spill would endanger coastal communities, the nation's third-largest ocean economy and thwart the state's new $1.4 billion commitment to renewables.
"Instead of protecting our waters from another oil spill, like the one that devastated the Gulf, this new federal plan only increases the chances of another disaster taking place," Cuomo said in a statement. "This is a total disregard for science, reality, and history, and their actions defy everything we know. We believe the future is a clean energy economy and New York is going to lead a counter-movement to what this administration is doing to the environment and illuminate the path forward."
Former Vice President Al Gore also praised the state's move.
"Governor Cuomo is demonstrating outstanding leadership in helping to solve the climate crisis and building a sustainable future," Gore said. "His vision and leadership stand in stark contrast to the Trump administration's malignant mission to make us even more dependent on the dirty and destructive fossil fuels. Now more than ever, it's up to all of us to step up and act on this urgent cause of our time. Governor Cuomo is showing how it can be done."
The governor's office said that several of the state's new renewable energy projects will break ground as early as April 2018 and all projects are expected to be operational by 2022.
The projects will also help advance the governor's Clean Energy Standard to obtain 50 percent of New York's electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030.
Find out about the 26 large-scale renewable energy projects here.
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India is home to 21 of the world's 30 most polluted cities, but recently air pollution levels have started to drop dramatically as the second-most populated nation endures the second week of a 21-day lockdown amidst coronavirus fears, according to The Weather Channel.
By Eddie Ndopu
- South Africa is ground zero for the coronavirus pandemic in Africa.
- Its townships are typical of high-density neighbourhoods across the continent where self-isolation will be extremely challenging.
- The failure to eradicate extreme poverty is a threat beyond the countries in question.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of two malarial drugs to treat and prevent COVID-19, the respiratory infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, despite only anecdotal evidence that either is proven effective in treating or slowing the progression of the disease in seriously ill patients.
A team of scientists drilled into the ground near the South Pole to discover forest and fossils from the Cretaceous nearly 90 million years ago, which is the time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, as the BBC reported.
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The challenges facing the world's oceans are well known: plastic pollution could crowd out fish by 2050, and the climate crisis could wipe out coral reefs by 2100.