In his January 9 State of the State Address, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo called for, among other things, a reduced Regional Greenhouse Gas Emissions cap.
Nine states including New York participate in the regional CO2 cap and trade program. The current cap is 165 million tons of CO2 and is well above the current emissions level of 91 million tons of CO2. As CO2 emissions have declined over 30% since the cap was established, the Governor proposed lowering the cap on CO2 emissions to a level that guarantees continued emissions reductions.
He also proposed increasing the use of alternative local power using renewable sources, natural gas, and energy storage to reduce dependence on centralized power plants and avoid outages.
He also proposed abolishing the Long Island Power Authority, saying Hurricane Sandy revealed systemic flaws and weaknesses in LIPA's structure. He argued for privatizing Long Island service, to be overseen by a newly empowered public service committee.