A new report published earlier this month has revealed that New Yorkers overwhelmingly want the ability to choose their energy supplier, clean energy, and want more renewable energy in New York’s electricity mix.
Commissioned by renewable energy company CleanChoice Energy and conducted by SurveyUSA, the new poll interviewed 600 New York State residents and revealed that support for renewable energy had no partisan divide, with both Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly supporting the option to choose clean energy.
Key highlights from the polling are as follows:
- 79% of New Yorkers want to be able choose who provides their electricity.
- 81% of New Yorkers want to be able to choose clean, renewable energy as a source for their home.
- 77% of New Yorkers would be interested in 100% renewable energy if provided the option
- New York residents overwhelmingly support the RESCO model for clean energy delivery even above rooftop solar and other technologies. 69% want 100% clean renewable energy compared to the 49% who want rooftop solar panels, the 52% who want home efficiency products and smart thermostats, and the 29% who want low carbon natural gas.
- New Yorkers support community solar. 25% of respondents selected a 10 out of 10, describing themselves as “extremely interested” in community solar and 72% of responded selected 6 or higher.
New York is one of the leading states in the US making huge strides towards reducing its emissions and boosting renewable energy development. Last year Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York intends to phase out all coal-fired power plants before 2020, saying “We will help the few remaining coal plants transition but we must clean our air and protect our health and that must be our first priority.” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also announced in 2016 that his city intends to cut carbon emissions by 40% by 2030, while just a few months ago de Blasio announced new mandates on building owners to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Top 10 Regions Where Jobs Are Within Reach for Transit Riders By 6
How easy is it to access jobs via transit? The answer says a lot about economic fairness in your region, and whether employment opportunities are fully available to people who can’t afford the expense of owning, maintaining, and fueling a car.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have been working on measuring transit access to jobs as part of their broader “Access Across America” project, and they just came out with new rankings for 49 of the nation’s biggest metro regions.
Using detailed data on population, employment, and transit schedules, the rankings weigh how many jobs residents can typically access via bus or train in a given amount of time. The more jobs are within reach of more people in less time, the better a region’s rank will be.
Among the metro areas that provide the best job access by transit, there aren’t too many surprises.
Best job accessibility by transit (metro area)
- New York
- San Francisco
- Chicago
- Washington D.C.
- Los Angeles
- Boston
- Philadelphia
- Seattle
- San Jose
- Denver
The top 10 list is unchanged from the previous year, notes UMN in a press release. But there were some shifts. “In all, 36 of the 49 largest metros showed increases in job accessibility by transit.”
The list below shows the regions where transit access to jobs improved the most between 2015 and 2016. Only one of these cities — Seattle — has made notable changes in transit service, so the improvements are probably related to changes in the location of jobs or housing that made existing transit service a better fit for more commutes. It’s an important reminder that making transit service useful depends to a large extent on land use decisions.
Biggest improvement in accessibility
- Cincinnati (+ 11.23%)
- Charlotte (+ 11.02%)
- Orlando (+ 10.83%)
- Seattle (+ 10.80%)
- Providence (+ 10.65%)
- Phoenix (+ 7.51%)
- Riverside (+ 6.59%)
- Milwaukee (+ 6.53%)
- Hartford (+ 6.44%)
- New Orleans (+ 6.18%)
Check out the full report for detailed data about how your region performs.
More recommended today: Observational Epidemiology critiques media coverage of Elon Musk’s Hyperloop. And Seattle Met explains a proposal moving forward in Seattle for “sweeping” upzoning that would address the city’s housing shortage.
