Summary of Green Jobs - Green New York Act of 2009

The Green Jobs/Green Homes NY program is a statewide initiative to make one million homes energy-efficient in five years. The program’s goal is to significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions, save families money on their energy bills, and produce tens of thousands of quality green jobs. 

A million retrofits are roughly estimated to create at least 60,000 job-years directly in construction and retrofit administration work and another 60,000 in “induced” jobs, like manufacturing retrofit products and selling retail goods to workers with income from retrofit jobs.  That’s equivalent to 14,240 full-time retrofit jobs created over the course of the program. 

Program Summary:  The Green Jobs/Green Homes program will provide financing for property owners to make energy-efficiency improvements on their homes.  Homeowners will have no upfront costs, repay low-interest loans over time through a line item on their utility bills (“on-bill payback”), and transfer loan obligations upon sale of their property.  The maximum capital investment for 1–4 unit buildings is set by legislation at $13,000, although owners may add capital from other sources to allow for deeper retrofits.

NOTE:  An additional piece of legislation is needed for the on-bill financing system. The Center for Working Families is currently working to develop consensus among utilities, state agencies, lenders and ground-level stakeholders about what the parameters of such legislation will be. Legislation will likely be introduced in early January with broad support. Advocates anticipate that it will pass in time for the rollout of GJGNY in April 2010.

Funding Sources: The legislation directs $112m in Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) proceeds to the program, with $70m to be used to establish the Retrofit Investment Fund, a revolving loan fund for the retrofits.  This could be used to leverage private capital.  Although legislation is unspecific, advocates anticipate that up to $15 million may be used for workforce training in the first two years.