While the future of the state’s climate goals is up in the air, the chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, Sen. Pete Harckham (D, WF-40^th), is urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to double down on solar power. 

Earlier this month, a coalition of organizations filed a petition with the Public Service Commission to “evaluate whether to temporarily suspend or modify the obligations under the Renewable Energy Program,” which is part of the state’s climate law.  

This comes after Hochul has consistently described her energy plan as an “all-of-the-above” strategy, rather than one committed exclusively to renewables.

It’s looking as if the governor may try to either convince the legislature to roll back some of the key provisions and deadlines of the state’s climate law or include the changes she wants in her 30-days amendments to the executive budget proposal.

But Harckham told Capital Tonight that he doesn’t support that move and doesn’t believe that her “all-of-the-above” strategy can work within the constraints of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, or CLCPA.

“No, I don’t believe it does. I have, respectfully, a different view than the governor,” he said. “What we should be focused on is renewables. And if we’re talking about affordability, solar is by far cheaper than natural gas and nuclear. It’s more scalable.”

He urged the governor to look at Texas which has invested in renewables. 

“It’s saved their ratepayers $30 billion,” he said.

Harckham carries multiple bills to foster solar energy, include the so-called “ASAP Act” (S6570-A8758), which would expand New York’s solar energy goals from six gigawatts to 20 gigawatts, and address some of the interconnection delays at the Public Service Commission and the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO).

“The one bright spot in the CLCPA has been our distributed solar. We’ve exceeded our goal,” he said.

Other pieces of legislation Harckham has introduced would create distributed solar on parking lots, warehouses, agrivoltaics and even floating voltaics. 

“It’s much faster to build and much faster to scale and more cost-effective,” he said. “And it’s far cheaper than a kilowatt of natural gas or nuclear.”