Dear Governor Cuomo,
On behalf of the Clean Fuels NY Coalition, we write to congratulate you on your robust 2020 State of the State address, beginning with addressing climate change. We applaud your four-part initiative to accelerate investment in electric vehicles, charging stations and mass transit.
As you know, the transportation sector is the largest contributor to New York’s greenhouse gas emissions. We need big solutions to modernize such a large sector, and we are pleased the State is taking measures to electrify our bus fleets and expand charging opportunities.
We recognize your call to transition the upstate public transit fleets to 25% electric buses by 2025 and 100% by 2035 and significant expansion of the charging network. However, the reality is that transit agencies will seek state assistance to fund the transition of more than 1,400 buses to all-electric at a time when the State is facing budget shortfalls. We’ve already heard concerns about how the transit agencies will fund this initiative from the Senate Transportation Committee and New York Public Transit Association.
As such, we urge you to include legislation to establish a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) in your executive budget. This is an approach that could help meet your ambitious goals – starting almost immediately – without impacting the state’s finances while also creating a dependable market for cleaner fuels.
The LCFS is a budget-neutral, technology neutral-solution that promotes clean energy options for New York’s transportation industry. An LCFS would set performance standards that require fuel manufacturers and importers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the petroleum-based fuels they make and sell, rightfully shifting the burden to the companies who are profiting from these polluting products.
The LCFS would require high carbon intensity fuel providers to buy credits from those producing and using low carbon intensity fuels such as electricity and renewable biofuels. This provides a new revenue stream for the electrification of the state’s bus and charging fleets and would further accelerate New York’s shift to clean forms of energy across the transportation sector.
An LCFS will also spur a steady investment into non-petroleum fuels and renewable technology, which is necessary to achieve economywide emissions reductions of 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050, as set out in the historic Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Finally, an LCFS would significantly upgrade our air quality, improving our environment and the lives of New Yorkers across the state, while creating in-state jobs, supporting regional economic development and reducing out-of-state payments.
A New York LCFS program would create a dependable market for cleaner fuels, which drives steady investment and innovation in the production and use of non-petroleum fuel sources. The LCFS is a valuable tool to substantially reduce pollution and emissions from the transportation sector. With the adoption of an LCFS, New York will be well positioned to join other jurisdictions that already have adopted a similar policy, including California, Oregon and British Columbia.
It will take a number of policy tools to achieve New York’s clean transportation future. We urge you to advance an LCFS in the Executive Budget that will enable us to rapidly reach our bold climate goals and provide resources necessary to push these goals forward.
Sincerely,
Jigar Shah
President and Co-Founder
Generate Capital
Graham Noyes
Executive Director
Low Carbon Fuels Coalition
Shelby Neal
Director of State Government Affairs
National Biodiesel Board
Jeremy Baines
President
Neste U.S., Inc.
Elizabeth Fretheim
Head of Business Development
Nikola Motor Company
Elizabeth Fretheim
Head of Business Development &
National Accounts
Nikola Corporation
Daniel Gage
President
NVGAmerica
Leonard Lincoln
Director of Sales
Odyne Systems, LLC
Mike Saxton
Chief Commercial Officer
Orange EV
Tom Koehler
Co-Founder
Pacific Ethanol
Tom McCalmont
CEO
Paired Power, Inc.
Gerald Conway
General Counsel
Plug Power
Shailesh Sahay
Senior Regulatory Counsel
POET, LLC
Eric McCarthy
Senior VP, Gvnt. Relations & Legal Affairs
Proterra Inc.
Scott Hedderich
Executive Director
Renewable Energy Group, Inc.
Steven Eisenberg
CEO
SRECTrade
Kevin Neumaier
Managing Partner
Sustainable Dairy Technologies
Albert Gore
Policy and Business Development
Tesla
Mike Koel
President
U.S. Gain
William Jorgenson
Co-Founder and Counselor
Vanguard Renewables
Jeff McDaniel
VP New Projects
Velocys
Michael Masquelier
CEO
WAVE
Dakota Semler
CEO
Xos Trucks
Paul Gioupis
CEO
Zeem Solutions
Julie Tighe
President
New York League of Conservation Voters
Vignesh Gowrishankar
Assoc. Dir., Climate and Clean Energy Program
Natural Resources Defense Council
Jeremy Martin
Senior Scientist and Director of Fuels Policy
Union of Concerned Scientists
Liz Hamlin
Director of Advocacy in NY
American Lung Association
Nina Kapoor
Director of State Government Affairs
Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas
Matt Tomich
President
Energy Vision
Dan Bowerson
Director of Vehicle Electrification & Fuels
Alliance for Automobile Innovation
Anne Reynold
Executive Director
Alliance for Clean Energy New York
Mbago Kaniki
CEO
Alva Charge
Chris Kennedy
Vice President of Marketing
Attis Innovations
W. Spencer Reeder
Director, Government Affairs
Audi of America
Steve Trichka
VP/General Manager
BAE Systems
Ashley Beaty
Vice President, Partnerships
BTR Energy
Vincent Pellecchia
Strategic Account Manager
BYD Motors
Eileen Wenger Tutt
Executive Director
California Electric Transportation Coalition
John Boesel
President and CEO
CALSTART
Kevin George Miller
Director, Public Policy
ChargePoint
Barry P. Carr
Executive Director
Clean Communities of Central NY
Brett Barry
Senior Policy Advisor
Clean Energy
Jason France
President, Founder, Sole Owner
ClipperCreek, Inc.
Ben Morris
CEO & Founder
Coaster Cycles
Brad Carson
Sales and Marketing Director
Complete Coach Works
Muffi Ghadiali
Founder and CEO
Electriphi, Inc.
Joy Gardner
Clean Cities Coordinator
Empire Clean Cities
John K. Bartow, Jr.
Executive Director
Empire State Forest Products Assoc.
Sara Rafalson
Director of Market Development
EVgo