To achieve widespread adoption of heat pumps, it’s imperative to ensure that households switching from gas to heat pumps don’t see their bills go up. Fortunately there’s a solution! Currently, utilities are overcharging heat pump customers for the poles and wires that deliver electricity. Dedicated heat pump rates, like those already offered by Con Edison, can solve this.

Our esteemed speakers include Juan-Pablo Velez, Executive Director of Switchbox, Magdalen Sullivan, Attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund, and Jessica Azulay, Executive Director at AGREE.

The webinar covers a new report commissioned by AGREE and Earthjustice on heat pump rates. The report can be accessed at this link: https://www.switch.box/nyhprates

Study Two-Pager: https://renewableheatnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/switchbox_nyhprates_onepager.pdf

The teach-in includes an overview of the NY heat pump design working group’s plan to call on the NY Public Service Commission to take action on electric rate design in the “Grid of the Future” docket to ensure that electric heating customers are not overpaying for electricity and to help drive heat pump adoption across the state.

There’s over 5 BESS projects being considered in Ulster County and the greater Hudson Valley region. Watch and hear from Dr. Jefferey Seidman, Vassar College, and Dan Murray, Energy Safety Consultant, and retired Chief in Charge of HazMat at FDNY; they will discuss how BESS systems work, why they’re needed, and what they mean for our communities.

In September, 2024, New York State kicked off the process to develop the State Energy Plan, which is supposed to be a comprehensive roadmap for a clean, resilient, and affordable energy system for all New Yorkers. The Energy Plan was last updated in 2020, when it was amended to incorporate the objectives of the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act). Since the 2020 update, the Climate Action Council produced its Scoping Plan, examining many of the energy issues that contribute to climate change and offering a number of recommendations for the State to implement. The State Energy Planning Board will now convene to begin the process of producing a draft, then a final plan, for this planning cycle. Currently planned to be considered by the Board in December 2025, the final plan will provide a 15-year outlook and focus on strategies to meet future energy needs and advance economy-wide decarbonization. The Hochul Administration has also expressed a desire to balance decarbonization with reliability, affordability, environmental and public health impacts and economic growth.

The climate emergency is here; how will New York’s Energy Plan meet this moment? New York State is required to update the State Energy Plan every 5 years and 2025 is the year a new plan will be put in place. What is the importance of the Energy Plan? Will the Energy Plan be compliant with the Climate Law? How can advocates participate to ensure the Energy Plan will result in a swift and equitable transition to clean energy?

Speakers included:

Janet Joseph, Principal, JLJ Sustainability Solutions (Former VP of Strategy and Market Development, NYSERDA)

Dr. Robert Howarth, Member, New York’s Climate Action Council and the David R. Atkinson Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology at Cornell University

Christopher Casey, Utility Regulatory Director, New York, Climate and Energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

New Yorkers for Clean Power and esteemed speakers to learn more about the draft State Energy Plan, what’s in it, what’s missing, and how to take action before the October 6th deadline. Our panelists will address key highlights and recommendations for the building, power and transportation sectors respectively.

Our speakers:
Josh Berman, Senior Attorney of Sierra Club Environmental Law Program
Marguerite Wells, Executive Director of Alliance for Clean Energy New York
Jaqi Cohen, Director of Climate and Equity Policy Tri-State Transportation Campaign

The Inflation Reduction Act created many incentives for clean energy upgrades such as EVs and heat pumps. Many of these rebates and tax credits will now expire in the next few months because of the “Big Beautiful” Budget Bill.

Watch for an overview of what the changes are and how to leverage these benefits before they disappear.

Speakers:
Michael Hernandez – Rewiring America
Samrat Pathania & Steve Wehr – Clean Energy Coaches, NY for Clean Power

In this virtual teach-in we address how the Clean Air Initiative can ensure the CLCPA’s environmental justice and greenhouse gas reduction goals are backed by enforceable regulations with mandatory emission limits on New York’s top-emitting sectors, buildings and transportation. We walk you through how to use New York’s official public comment tool to weigh in on the recently proposed Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule, which requires corporate polluters to tell us what they are dumping into our air (really important as EPA has signaled that it will end this requirement at the federal level)

Speakers:

Julie Tighe, President NYLCV & NYLCVEF

Eric Walker, Energy Justice Senior Policy Manager, WE ACT for Environmental Justice

Moderated by Betta Broad, Campaign Director, New Yorkers for Clean Power & Association for Energy Affordability

We dive into:

The latest with NY’s cap-and-invest program, now called the Clean Air Initiative and why it’s our best path to regulate and phase out emissions from buildings and transportation.

The health and economic benefits of cap-and-invest + the $1 billion Sustainable Future Fund

How to show up for upcoming public hearings, submit comments, and help push for the reporting rule that would mandate fossil fuel providers to report their GHG impacts, and call for the full release of regulations to actually cap GHG and copollutant emissions.

New Yorkers are paying the price for outdated gas infrastructure. But there’s a better way. In this teach-in we dig into a new report from Switchbox that compares the cost of replacing leak-prone gas pipelines to the cost of fully electrifying the buildings those pipes serve.

The findings? Targeted electrification can save ratepayers billions—even when accounting for full electrification costs. We explored the report’s insights and how the NY HEAT Act can make these smarter investments possible.

Speakers:
Jessica Azulay – Executive Director, Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE)
Juan-Pablo Velez – Executive Director, Switchbox

Too many New Yorkers cannot afford their utility and heating bills, and the problem is only getting worse. This briefing will lay out the problem, identify some of the root causes, and highlight key policy solutions that will help lower energy costs now and into the future.

Laurie Wheelock – Executive Director, Public Utility Law Project (PULP)
Annie Carforo – Climate Justice Campaigns Manager, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
Allison Considine – Senior Campaign & Communications Manager, Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC)

Visit our Teach In Archive for more: https://nyforcleanpower.org/teach-in-archive/

Join New Yorkers for Clean Power and the NY Energy Democracy Alliance for an interactive teach-in on the Green Affordable Pre-Electrification Fund, legislation that will help create a pathway to home energy upgrades for low and moderate income homes.

Our panelists include: Assemblymember Anna Kelles and State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, the lead sponsors of this crucial legislation, Jasmine Graham, Executive Director and Mid-Hudson Energy Transition, Avni Pravin, Deputy Director at the Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE), Matt Dennis, heat pump and weatherization sales at Halco Energy, and Annie Carforo of WE ACT for Environmental Justice.