New York is falling behind on its climate goals. Is there any way to catch up?
Sean Dague would like to use his refrigerator to lower your energy bills.
A few years ago, after buying a fridge, the Dutchess County resident did something few people do: He read the manual. (He's a software engineer at IBM, so he does that.) In it, he learned that, when the grid was under strain, the local utility could send a signal telling it to temporarily use less power. He found similar language in the manual for his hot-water heater.
This feature could save Dague money and make it less likely that utilities would need to rely on fossil-fuel-reliant "peaker" plants, such as Danskammer, north of Newburgh. If every "smart" appliance were connected this way, it could save money for everyone and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.
Alas, there was a major obstacle. Central Hudson doesn't participate.
"When you talk about what it costs to get electricity to people, you also have to talk about demand flexibility," says Dague, who lives in LaGrange. "We have the technology to do it."
This flexible grid technology is also known as virtual power plants (VPP). Across the river, Orange & Rockland Utilities recently ran a pilot program in which customers who installed solar panels received a free or heavily discounted battery. In exchange, they agreed to allow the utility to draw power from the battery when the grid is strained, such as during last summer's "heat dome."
Dague is a volunteer organizer with the Citizens Climate Lobby, which recently worked with Assembly Member Anna Kelles, a Democrat whose district includes Ithaca, on a bill that would create VPPs throughout the state.
This past week, MIT unveiled an online tool developed with Heatmap News and CleanEcon called The Electricity Price Hub, which tracks electricity prices by ZIP code. Things don't look so bad in New York: The state is mostly a soothing green. But click on utility bills, and a dark orange blob appears: the service area for Central Hudson, indicating that its customers are, by far, paying the highest utility bills in the state.

VPPs are among many tools that can lower bills and help transition New York away from fossil fuels, the primary goal of the Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act (aka the Climate Law), enacted in 2019. The law sets ambitious targets, including getting 70 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 and 100 percent zero-emissions energy by 2040.
As we reported last week, the state is behind in its targets. Enforcement regulations that would have penalized industries for high emissions — with fines that would pay for renewable energy projects and rebate checks to consumers — were scrapped just before they were scheduled to take effect.
Arguing that New York was breaking its own law, a group of environmental organizations sued the state in 2025 — and won. Now, Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to roll back some targets to make them easier to meet and change how the state calculates emissions. This methodology, which many states use, would put New York much closer to reaching its goals.
The governor is working with the Legislature to amend the law as part of the 2026-27 budget, which is due this coming week. Hochul cites a series of unforeseen setbacks: a pandemic, wars, inflation, tariffs and President Donald Trump's disapproval of renewable energy projects. As a result, she says, the law has become too expensive to implement by the 2019 deadlines.

Not every state is backing away: 50 gigawatts of renewable energy were added in the U.S. last year. Wind, solar and battery storage continue to grow. "It's good business, right? These are profitable," said Erin Baker, faculty director of the Energy Transition Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "They suppress prices for ratepayers. The example I always give is Texas: It has the most wind energy production and the second-most solar in the country. Its batteries...

Countdown to Zero: Backup Power