Clarkstown protects residents from high energy costs by taking climate action
“Even though energy rates are the highest they’ve been since the 1980's, we have been able to save our residents money and give them predictability through a fixed electricity rate, and that’s been extraordinarily helpful for our residents.”
Clarkstown Supervisor, George Hoehmann describes how one of the municipality’s ongoing climate initiatives—a local clean energy community choice program called Rockland Community Power—has allowed local leaders to protect residents from a dramatic upward swing of energy prices by securing a lower, fixed electricity rate.
As a result, Rockland Community Power participants have saved more than $5.5 million dollars since the program launched in November 2020. Clarkstown residents have saved more than $2.7 million so far, and the program has also enabled the vast majority of households to switch over to 100% renewable electricity.
Supervisor Hoehmann continues to have ambitious objectives for his community.
“Our goal is to take Clarkstown operations off the grid. To do that, we’d need to build out another roughly 2 Mgw of solar or renewables; but the goal is to be the first town in all of NY State to be net neutral in energy usage.”
Clarkstown milestones:
First municipality in NY State to build a solar field on a closed landfill (2014)
Early adopter of LED streetlights (2016)—Clarkstown was, as Supervisor Hoehmann says of this project, ”the first on this side of the Hudson River, between New Jersey and Albany”, to install LED streetlights, saving the Town ~$ 1 million/year while drastically reducing energy consumption
Upcoming Town Projects:
Solar power for municipal buildings
Charging stations for electrical vehicles and solar carports by the Town Hall and at a local park
Supervisor Hoehmann explained, “Beyond the immediate cost saving benefits and reduced carbon emissions, the clean energy program, has also helped the town access State funding for future projects.” He continued, “The CCA really helped us attain designation as a Clean Energy Community, thereby qualifying us for and opening access to grants for charging stations and other projects. These projects will, in turn, give us more points in NYSERDA’s ranking system and qualify us for even larger grants.”
Final thoughts...
Being at the forefront of local climate action efforts is a familiar realm to Supervisor Hoehmann. Even before becoming Clarkstown’s Supervisor in 2016, he brought solar to a number of agencies. In his earlier role as CEO and administrator of Camp Venture (a nonprofit provider of support and services for people of all abilities, ages, and special needs) Hoehmann was the first in NY State to install solar on a group home. "I really believe that where there's a will, there's a way," said Hoehmann as our interview wrapped up; and he does, in fact, seem to embody the adage.
Joule serves as program administrator for Rockland Community Power, Clarkstown’s local clean energy community choice program.