What about Ithaca – Watt?

People from Manhattan against the trend

Francis Menton

Many political jurisdictions claim to be eliminating CO2 emissions from their energy systems. Notable examples include California and New York in the United States and Britain and Germany in Europe. The Biden administration’s tenure even claims to lead the entire United States to what they call “net zero”. But so far, none of these places have reached their targets. Indeed, to this day, hundreds of billions of dollars have been paid, and no one has even released a detailed engineering plan for how this should be achieved.

For reasons expressed in dozens of posts on this blog, besides the massive expansion of nuclear energy, I think it is possible to actually do such a “net zero” thing, at least not completely poor. However, I'm totally willing to be proven wrong. For years, I have been calling for a demonstration project to demonstrate whether an economically developed community can achieve zero carbon emissions or anything related to it (e.g., anything from 2022, mine). Of course, if the entire United States is expected to be able to respond to the Government Command’s completion of “zero net”, it should be easy to establish an effective “net zero” demonstration project for a small town in a small town.

I even proposed the ideal place to be my candidate, becoming the guinea pig for the “net zero” demonstration: Ithaca, New York. After all, Ithaca is the most exquisite place for climate virtues already in a dark blue state. It is home to two thorough left-wing academic institutions (Cornell University and Ithaca College) with thousands of left-wing climate activists and students. These people should take the opportunity to show the rest of the world how to do something “net zero”. Additionally, the population for the Zero Demonstration Project (approximately 50,000) is approximately within the correct range. (Note that 50,000 is the combined population of Ithaca City and Ithaca Town. Yes, for reasons only being a genius of local governance in New York State, Ithaca consists of two independent adjoining municipalities, a city and a town, sharing the same name.). If “zero net” doesn’t work in such a small place, then the loss of investment can be significant, but it won’t be disastrous.

In fact, it seems that it is at the forefront of the green energy transition when talking about the speech. Back in June 2019, the Ithaca Municipal Ordinary Committee unanimously approved what they called the “Ithaca Green New Deal”. A few months later, in March 2020, the Ithaca Town Council also unanimously passed its own “green new transaction solution”. Despite the differences, the town’s resolutions incorporate most of the language of the city’s resolution words. Ithaca City takes another step further in the second year next year and announced that it will inflate all 6,000 buildings. They don't actually use the term “demo project”, but obviously the key elements are now in place. Should we check the situation?

Short answer: This is a complete joke.

First, let's pay attention to some official goals. New deal resolution from Ithaca Green:

solve, By 2025, the city of Ithaca has adopted a goal to meet the electricity needs of municipal government-operated 100% renewable electricity. . . solve, Ithaca cities here adopt the goal of becoming carbon-neutral cities by 2030. . . solve, Ithaca City recognizes action to achieve these goals: Develop a Climate Action Plan (CAP) in 2020 to provide detailed information on how to achieve new Ithaca green transactions and to update the CAP regularly. . . .

Then it was found on the Ithaca City website, but reported on WSKG's website on January 29, 2025 (at least today).

In 2021, the small city of Ithaca announced that it will inflate all 6,000 buildings.

How will Ithaca electrify 6,000 buildings in just a few years?

[Ithaca planned to achieve building electrification] With the help of a major partner: Donnel Baird, the then-CEO of the technology company called Blocpower, said the company would make the Volkswagen electrification process quick and affordable. Baird told Ithaca's General Committee After the approval of the quality electrification plan in 2021. “Our job is to remove all friction.”

OK, these are the goals. Now to achieve their progress. Everything seems great if you visit the city of Ithaca website today:

Ithaca leads the world. On June 5, 2019, Ithaca Common Commons unanimously adopted the Ithaca Green New Deal solution, a government-led commitment to community-wide carbon neutrality, focusing on addressing historical inequality, economic inequality and social justice. Two years after the resolution was signed, Ithaca became a world leader in climate mitigation programs and continues to pave the way for the blueprint for the United States and other cities around the world.

But what about some local facts? Let's start with that building electrification thing. Start with the same January 25 WSKG clip:

[I]According to municipal leaders and organizations working with BlocPower, Blocpower has quietly abandoned its electrification and workforce training programs in Ithaca and several other cities in recent months. . . . In Ithaca, Blocpower ended its collaboration with the city after completing the electrification of 10 buildings, according to Rebecca Evans, current director of sustainability at Ithaca. Evans said the company farmed its ITHACA staff last November and ended all partnerships in the city.

6000 buildings, 10, anyway. Here is a photo of Rebecca Evans, WSKG's “Sustainability Director”:

So, Ms. Evans, will Ithaca guide the ignorant world how to obtain a large-scale climate action plan for carbon neutrality? This is another article from WSKG, which is the latest revision a few months ago (October 2024). excerpt:

this [Green New Deal] solve. . . The allegation was made by city staff to develop a formal climate action plan that would outline how the city will achieve these goals. Ithaca director of sustainability Rebecca Evans wrote Posts about LinkedIn Last month, she recently decided to repeal the version of the plan she has been working on. She said in an interview with WSKG that the decision did not change the goal of the green new deal, but restructured the approach to how the city can achieve its commitments. Evans said the new plan will prioritize emission reduction rather than reductions, while helping residents adapt to living in a warm world while also working towards the city’s goal of reducing emissions. This may include providing residents with better social services, such as housing and vocational training, and improving emergency response and power reliability in cities.

Get it – they have given up reducing emissions. What about the city’s promise to get 100% of its own electricity from renewable energy by 2025? Are they really doing this now? I can't find the most recent report, but this is starting in December 2011:

Starting in January [2012]Ithaca City will purchase 100% of its electricity consumption from renewable energy. Under a new agreement with New York company Integrys Energy Services, Ithaca will purchase a Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) certified by Green-E Energy.

ah! This is the magic of the “Certificate of Renewable Energy”. Obviously, these make it possible to get power from wind turbines and solar panels on completely calm nights. If you are willing to believe it. Al Gore will be proud of it.

In short, everything about Ithaca's green new deal is a scam, either quietly abandoned or both.

In New York City, we have our own building electrification authorization, called “Local Law 97”, which is said to require about 50,000 buildings to be converted to electric heat and cooking by 2030. Does anyone really think we can make greater progress than Ithaca?

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