On Monday, City Limits published this Op-Ed by Solar One Senior Policy Manager Kate Selden and Cooper Square Committee’s Resiliency Coordinator and Housing Organizer Alex Lee, encouraging the expansion of New York’s solar residential tax credit.
While the tax credit can help residents who earn enough to owe personal income taxes, it leaves lower-income New Yorkers, seniors on fixed incomes and their communities without a path to claim the funds that would help them solarize and create an important climate benefit for their neighborhoods. Affordable housing cooperatives, also known as HDFC co-ops, would benefit greatly from being able to transition to renewable energy without depleting their buildings’ financial reserves.
From the Op-Ed:
“HDFC co-ops are in dire need of affordable, clean energy. Rising operating costs make it increasingly difficult for co-ops to keep healthy building reserves. Most co-ops in New York City are older building stock in need of repairs, upgrades, and other necessary capital improvements. They have to contend with the impact of inflation, the drastic rise in property insurance, utility bills, and building repairs. Rising monthly maintenance costs are increasing for shareholders, putting a strain on one of the few affordable homeownership opportunities remaining.
Because of this, many of the co-ops that we work with want to go solar, weatherize, and electrify their buildings to save money. And given that, in New York City, buildings account for more than two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions, co-ops are critical to helping the city and state reach their bold clean energy targets of vastly reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But to implement this monumental transformation of buildings, we need incentive programs that work for everyone.
Affordable solar is about more than clean energy. For families struggling with rising utility bills, solar can be a lifeline, providing predictable energy costs and real savings over time. But we need a solar program that works for all families, regardless of income. New York leaders must lead the way forward by expanding the Residential Tax Credit and expanding access to rooftop solar to build energy security, create clean energy jobs, and bring us closer to the city and state’s ambitious climate goals.”
You can read the full Op-Ed on the City Limits website here.
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