REMARKS
Council Member Sandy Nurse discusses the passage of public solar bill during Climate Week
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112 sec
Council Member Sandy Nurse addresses the council during Climate Week, discussing the imminent passage of Introduction 353, a bill requiring New York City to install 150 megawatts of solar capacity on public sites by 2035. She emphasizes the urgency of climate action and the bill's potential to create green jobs and prioritize disadvantaged communities.
- The bill has the most sponsors of any bill this session and is bipartisan
- Nurse highlights recent climate disasters and their economic impact
- She thanks various individuals and organizations for their support in making the bill possible
Sandy Nurse
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Thank you, majority leader.
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Good afternoon, colleagues, and happy climate week.
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Last year, during climate week, we introduced intro 353, our public solar bill.
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And today, nearly 1 year to the day, we are set to vote on and hopefully pass this bill.
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This bill, which has the most sponsors out of any other bill this session, a bipartisan bill, will require the city to install, maintain, and operate a 150 megawatts of solar capacity on public sites by 2035 and a hundred megawatts of solar by 2030.
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This is a remarkable achievement, and we should all be very proud.
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But as we pass this, we have to be clear of the stakes.
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Since introducing this bill last year, the U.
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S.
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Has had over 20 confirmed climate events of a $1,000,000,000 or more.
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Cumulatively, these $1,000,000,000,000 climate disasters have caused nearly 4,000,000,000 in damages since 1980.
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To say nothing about the day to day harm people suffer that doesn't make the headlines.
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New York state is on track to exceed the CLCPA's goal of installing 6 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2035.
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And today, we are making sure that New York City is doing its part.
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By utilizing our public assets for solar capacity, whether it's public buildings, parking lots, schools, industrial sites, we will not only help reach our climate goals, but create family sustaining green union jobs.
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This bill also prioritizes installations in disadvantaged communities who are already bearing the brunt of environmental racism.
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I'm extremely proud of this bill and the work of climate jobs in New York and climate works for all.
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And I wanna thank my lives director, Ryan Hickey, my former lives director, Anal Hernandez, the speaker, Jeff Baker, Christopher Murray, Austin Malone, and everyone who helped made this happen.
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Thank you so much.
