(Buffalo, NY \u2013 July 2, 2015)\u00a0 The New York State Legislature has passed two measures to encourage New Yorkers to install geothermal heat pumps (GHPs).\u00a0 The bills would give building owners who install GHP systems the same tax breaks as currently offered for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems.\u00a0 GHP systems provide ultra-efficient heating, cooling and hot water for buildings by using the near constant temperature of the ground as a heat source in the winter and as a heat sink in the summer.<\/p>\n
Senator Robert Ortt (R-Niagara) sponsored the two bills in the New York Senate, where both passed unanimously on Earth Day, April 22. A-2177a\/S2905 was sponsored in the Assembly by Sean Ryan (D-Erie) and was passed unanimously on June 1st.\u00a0 It grants the owners of residential GHP installations a tax credit of 25% of project costs, capped at $5,000, mirroring the tax credit for solar PV.<\/p>\n
A-25508a\/S4279 provides a state sales tax exemption for residential and commercial GHP installations.\u00a0 Sponsored by Ellen Jaffee (D-Rockland), this measure passed the Assembly by vote of 147 to 0 on June 9.\u00a0 Both measures will go to Governor Cuomo for his signature.<\/p>\n
\u201cPromoting natural, renewable energy is a common sense, bi-partisan approach that benefits all New Yorkers,\u201d said Senator Rob Ortt (R,C,I \u2013 North Tonawanda). \u201cIt\u2019s certainly important to reduce our carbon footprint for future generations.\u00a0 But with geothermal solutions, we\u2019re also investing in and creating good local jobs and helping reduce energy costs for hard-working families and small businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
NY Geothermal Energy Organization (NY-GEO) President John Franceschina praised the Legislature for passing these measures, which bring geothermal the same tax breaks that have spurred tremendous job creation in the solar industry.\u00a0 \u201cWe applaud Senator Ortt for recognizing the importance of GHP systems to address a host of New York\u2019s energy and environmental goals\u201d, said Franceschina, \u201cAssemblymembers Ryan and Jaffee also showed great foresight shepherding these common sense measures to unanimous passage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Assemblyman Sean Ryan said \u201cWe have seen great success with the Solar energy tax credit in New York, and expanding this idea to include geothermal energy systems will help to lower energy costs, protect our environment, and create jobs across Western New York.\u00a0 New York is focused on producing more and more energy from renewable sources, and incentivizing these green industries will be a great benefit to our society, and our energy future. I thank NY-GEO for their advocacy and for promoting the importance of geothermal energy.”<\/p>\n
\u201cGeothermal energy, a renewable energy source, is a reliable and effective way to reduce the need for carbon based energy sources\u201d said Assemblymember Jaffee.\u00a0 \u201cIn addition to the environmental benefits, geothermal heating and cooling systems also provide great economic benefits, in that they save on operational costs for heating and cooling. Geothermal heating and cooling systems, coupled with solar PV, are New York\u2019s best alternative to achieving net zero energy goals.\u00a0 By eliminating sales and use tax for both the purchase and installation of geothermal systems, more New York State residents will be able to afford this energy course.\u00a0 \u00a0Investing in renewable energy is a smart investment – in our children\u2019s future and the future of our increasingly fragile planet.<\/p>\n
New York officials are paying closer attention to the pollution resulting from heating buildings.\u00a0 The recently adopted State Energy Plan reports that 35 percent of the state\u2019s fossil fuel greenhouse gases (GHG) result from \u201con-site combustion\u201d (largely heating buildings) compared with 18 percent from New York\u2019s electricity generating plants.\u00a0 NY-GEO Executive Director Bill Nowak noted \u201cIf New York is to meet ambitious goals for reducing GHG emissions, geothermal heat pumps and other \u2018renewable thermal\u2019 technologies will need to play a big role.\u00a0 We urge Governor Cuomo to sign these bills to help ease that transition\u201d<\/p>\n
The New York Geothermal Energy Organization (NY-GEO) is a non-profit trade association representing more than seventy geothermal heat pump (GHP) installers, manufacturers, distributors and industry stakeholders from throughout New York State.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Buffalo, NY \u2013 July 2, 2015)\u00a0 The New York State Legislature has passed two measures to encourage New Yorkers to install geothermal heat pumps (GHPs).\u00a0 The bills would give building owners who install GHP systems the same tax breaks as currently offered for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems.\u00a0 GHP systems provide ultra-efficient heating, cooling and hot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}