Exciting news for my fellow New Yorkers: 45 by 15

In addition to “15 by 15” — the goal of reducing energy use by 15% by 2015 that’s been in place for a couple of years now — Gov. Paterson is pushing the state to increase our Renewable Portfolio Standard (the amount of our energy we get from renewables) to 30% in that time.  They’re calling the plan “45 by 15” and I think it rocks.

The RPS goal represents a 9% increase from current levels (we get 19% of energy from hydropower, namely from Niagara Falls, and we get another 2% from other sources.)  If we reach the goal, it’ll put us well ahead of California, which is aiming for 33% renewables by 2020.

One of the ways the state is going to do this is by increasing the fee collected from utilities’ gross revenues to offset the cost of energy service, from 0.33% to 1%.  In my opinion, the harder part is going to be reducing energy consumption, but that’s where job creation comes in — we need people to audit and retrofit “leaky” buildings, especially in NYC.  Paterson says his plan will create 50,000 new jobs — welcome news in light of the sobering report that national unemployment is at a 16-year high.

Bonus: electricity = money — particularly here (our utilities are some of highest in nation).  By 2015, so we’ll be saving a lot of both.