New York State's climate plan, which includes phasing out the state's reliance on natural gas, continues to face criticism.
Congressman Nick Langworthy represents New York's 23rd congressional district which includes a portion of Western New York and the Southern Tier.
Langworthy recently introduced the Energy Choice Act to block New York and other states that are phasing out gas.
On Thursday, Langworthy met with local utility and energy producers to call for the production of natural gas to be ramped up. He cited a report from the New York State Independent System Operator that he says makes it clear that if policies don't change the electric grid stands to fail.
"If these policies don't change, the electric grid stands to fail in populated areas like Western New York and in New York City, potentially leaving thousands of people without heat during winter storms," said Langworthy. "Natural gas is the difference between life and death in these situations."
7 News spoke with Liz Moran from Earthjustice who says Hochul's plan is good for the climate and people need to get on board quickly to make it work.
"Thankfully New York State is moving forward with a really important climate plan," said Moran. "The state took a number of years looking into how we can meet the mandates of our climate law. That law was finalized in the past year. These are entirely achievable goals but we do need to move quickly."
"New York State has a statewide goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050," Moran continued. "There's a couple intermediary goals along the way, including getting the grid off of fossil fuels making it a zero-emissions electric grid by 2040."
Langworthy says converting to all-electric will be costly
"Some of the estimates out of our meeting today was the full electrification mandates on our citizens could cost as much as $30,000 to $40,000 per household," said Langworthy.
7 News also spoke with UB professor and energy expert Nick Rajkovich who says New York's plan is ambitious but feasible.
"One of the biggest things for folks is they're very nervous about it because we're talking about moving away... throughout human history we've burned things to stay warm and so to move to electricity is really a significant conceptual shift," said Rajkovich. "But there's been a lot of work in the different technologies, like heat pumps and things like that, to make that transition possible."
