Making Daily Living More Affordable: Senator Parker Proposes Alternative Energy Package to Alleviate the Pain at the Pump and Encourage the Use of Alternative Energy

(Brooklyn, NY) Today Senator Parker led his Senate colleagues in releasing an alternative energy package with seven pieces of legislation to address the affordability crisis faced by main street New Yorkers.  The legislative package included bills from Senators Parker, Peralta, Grisanti, and Maziarz covering a broad range of alternatives including prohibiting more than one increase in the price of fuel in any 24-hour period, providing tax incentives to individuals who purchase green vehicles, creating solar energy projects which project thousands of new jobs for New York, and expanding the Green EZ-Pass discount.

Senator Parker, the Ranking Member and former Chair of the Senate Energy Committee said, “Hardworking families and small businesses are suffering as a result of high gas prices and energy costs.  We need to make sure we approach this affordability crisis with long-term solutions that reduce our reliance on foreign oil, increase renewable energy, create jobs, and ease the pain at the pump.”

The Bipartisan Legislative Plan includes:

·         S603/Peralta: Prohibits more than one increase in the price of motor fuel in any twenty-four hour period.

·         S1054/Parker: Provides a tax incentive in the State of New York for individuals and commercial entities to purchase cleaner, more energy efficient vehicles.

·         S1067/Parker: Requires alternative fuels to be available for public use along the New York State Thruway, and for these fuels to be available at least every 120 miles on each side of the Thruway.

·         S1114/Parker: Restores a fuel cell technology tax credit to continue New York's public policy of promoting increased use of greenhouse gas reducing power technologies.

·         S1149/Parker: Expands New York's net metering law to cover residential and non-residential utility customers utilizing micro-hydroelectric generating systems to encourage greater investment in facilities that generate energy from clean renewable sources.

·         S2646/Grisanti: Provides owners of vehicles with a high mile per gallon fuel efficiency – 35 MPG or more – a ten percent "Green EZ-Pass discount" on tolls in New York.

·         S4178/Maziarz: Creates the Solar Renewable Energy Credit program to stimulate the installation of solar projects in New York State, and also create thousands of good paying jobs in the process.

“This package is not a gimmick but a set of bills with assembly sponsors that can actually become law,” stated Senator Parker.  "Despite its excellent potential, New York State installed solar capacity represents less than 1 percent of our electricity," said Ross Gould, Air & Energy Program Director, Environmental Advocates of New York. "We commend Senator Parker for seeking to advance a package of clean energy legislation that includes the Solar Industry Development and Jobs Act of 2011, a bill sponsored by his colleague from across the aisle, Senator Maziarz.  If enacted the bill will reduce air pollution, create 22,000 jobs, and generate $20 billion in economic output." 

Along with this legislative package, Senator Parker and 15 other Senate Democrats sent a letter to Attorney General Schneiderman requesting that his office  investigate and prosecute potential fraud and manipulation in the energy markets.

About Senator Kevin Parker

Senator Kevin S. Parker is intimately familiar with the needs of his ethnically diverse community that consists of 311,000 constituents in Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood, Ditmas Park, Kensington and Borough Park. He is the Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee, former Majority Whip, former Chair of the Democratic Task Force on Alternative Energy Future and First Vice Chair or the Association of Black, Puerto Rican Asian Legislators.

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