Many political jurisdictions claim to be on a path to eliminating emissions of carbon dioxide from their energy systems. Notable examples include California and New York in the U.S., and the UK and Germany in Europe. The Biden administration during its term in office even claimed to have set the entire U.S. onto a path toward what they called “net zero.” But so far none of these places has gotten anywhere near the goal. Indeed, as of today, many hundreds of billions of dollars into the effort, not one of them has even issued a detailed engineering plan of how this is supposed to be accomplished.
For reasons expressed in some dozens of posts on this blog, with the exception of a vast expansion of nuclear energy, I don’t believe that this “net zero” thing can actually be done, at least without entirely impoverishing the people. However, I’m completely willing to be proved wrong. For many years, I have been calling for a Demonstration Project to prove whether or not an economically-developed community is capable of achieving zero carbon emissions, or anything close to that (example here from 2022). Surely, if the entire U.S. can be expected to accomplish “net zero” in response to a government command, then it should be simple to build a working “net zero” Demonstration Project for a small town of, say, a few tens of thousands of people.
I’ve even proposed the perfect place as my candidate to be the guinea pig for the “net zero” demonstration: Ithaca, New York. After all, Ithaca is the most exquisitely climate virtuous place in what is already a deep blue state. It is home to two thoroughly left-wing academic institutions (Cornell University and Ithaca College), with their thousands of radical left-wing climate activist faculty and students. These people should leap at the chance to show the rest of the world how this “net zero” thing can be done. Also, the population (approximately 50,000) is in about the right range for a net zero demonstration project. (Note that the 50,000 is the combined population of the City of Ithaca and Town of Ithaca. Yes, for reasons known only to the geniuses of New York State local governance, Ithaca consists of two independent adjoining municipalities, a City and a Town, sharing the same name.). If “net zero” doesn’t work in a small place like this, the loss of investment could be large, but not catastrophic.
And in fact, when it comes to talking the talk, Ithaca would appear to be at the forefront of the green energy transition. Back in June 2019, the Ithaca City Common Council unanimously adopted what they called the “Ithaca Green New Deal.” A few months later, in March 2020, the Ithaca Town Council, also unanimously, adopted their own “Green New Deal Resolution.” Although there are differences, the Town’s Resolution incorporated much of the language of the City’s Resolution word-for-word. Not to be caught standing still, the next year, 2021, the City of Ithaca went a step further and announced that it would electrify all of its 6000 buildings. They didn’t actually use the words “demonstration project,” but clearly the key elements were now in place. Should we check in on how it’s going?
The short answer: It’s a complete joke.
First, let’s take note of some of the official goals. From the City of Ithaca Green New Deal resolution:
RESOLVED, That the City of Ithaca adopts a goal to meet the electricity needs of City government operations with 100% renewable electricity by 2025. . . . RESOLVED, That the City of Ithaca hereby adopts a goal of achieving a carbon neutral city by 2030. . . . RESOLVED, That the City of Ithaca endorses the following actions to achieve these goals: Create a climate action plan (CAP) in 2020 to provide details on how to achieve the Ithaca Green New Deal, and update the CAP regularly. . . .
And then there’s this, not found (at least today) on the City of Ithaca’s website, but reported on January 29, 2025 at the website of WSKG, the Ithaca PBS affiliate:
In 2021, the small city of Ithaca announced it would electrify all of its 6,000 buildings.
And how exactly was Ithaca going to electrify 6000 buildings within a few short years?
[Ithaca planned to achieve building electrification] with the help of one key partner: a technology company called BlocPower, whose then-CEO Donnel Baird said the company would make the mass electrification process fast and affordable. “There’s a lot of expensive engineering and financial and workforce development costs,” Baird told Ithaca’s common council in 2021, after it approved the mass electrification plan. “Our job is to remove all of that friction.”
OK, those were the goals. Now for the progress toward achieving them. If you go to the website of the City of Ithaca today, everything seems great:
Ithaca is leading the world. On June 5th, 2019, the City of Ithaca Common Council unanimously adopted the Ithaca Green New Deal resolution, a government-led commitment to community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030 that focuses on addressing historical inequities, economic inequality, and social justice. Two years after the resolution was signed, Ithaca established itself as a world-leader in climate mitigation planning and continues to pave the path forward as a blueprint for other cities across the U.S. and the globe.
But how about some actual facts on the ground. Let’s start with that building electrification thing. From that same January 25 WSKG piece:
[I]n recent months, BlocPower has quietly deserted its electrification and workforce training programs in Ithaca and several other cities, according to municipal leaders and organizations that worked with BlocPower. . . . In Ithaca, BlocPower ended its collaboration with the city after completing the electrification of only 10 buildings, according to Ithaca’s current sustainability director, Rebecca Evans. Last November, the company furloughed its Ithaca staff members and ended all partnerships in the city, Evans said.
6000 buildings, 10, whatever. Here is a picture from WSKG of “sustainability director” Rebecca Evans:
So, Ms. Evans, how about the big Climate Action Plan by which Ithaca will instruct the ignorant world how to get to carbon neutrality? Here’s another piece from WSKG, this one from several months ago (October 2024) reporting on recent revisions to the Plan. Excerpt:
The [Green New Deal] resolution . . . charged city staff with creating a formal climate action plan that would outline how the city would achieve those goals. Ithaca’s sustainability director, Rebecca Evans, wrote in a post on LinkedIn last month that she recently decided to scrap the version of that plan she had been working on. The decision, she said in an interview with WSKG, does not change the goals of the Green New Deal, but instead reframes the city’s approach of how it will achieve its commitments. Evans said that rather than prioritizing reducing emissions, the new plan will prioritize helping residents adapt to living in a warming world, while also working towards the city’s emissions-reduction goals. That could include providing residents with better access to social services, like housing and job training, and improving the city’s emergency response and electricity reliability.
Got it — They’ve given up on reducing emissions. And how about the City’s promise to get 100% of its own electricity from renewable sources by 2025? Are they really doing that right now? I can’t find a recent report, but there’s this from back in December 2011:
Beginning in January [2012], the City of Ithaca will purchase 100% of its electricity consumption from renewable sources. Under a new agreement with Integrys Energy Services of New York, Inc., Ithaca will purchase Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) certified by Green-e Energy for all of its electricity.
Aha! It’s the magic of “Renewable Energy Certificates.” Apparently, those make it possible to get your electricity from wind turbines and solar panels on completely calm nights. If you are willing to believe it. Al Gore would be proud.
In short, everything about Ithaca’s Green New Deal is either a scam, or has been quietly abandoned, or both.
Here in New York City we have our own building electrification mandate called “Local Law 97” that is said to require some 50,000 buildings to convert to electric heat and cooking by 2030. Does anybody really think we can make any more progress toward such a goal than Ithaca?
Reframe it any way you choose, it’s a complete failure.
But just like Miliband, they won’t give up the faith. On to the next wheeze.
Ed is beginning to lose the plot. He told the Grauniad (21st March) “”I’ve just come back from China. I’ve just recently been in India. People are getting on with the transition”
Meanwhile the IEA recently said
*Coal provided 74% of India’s electricity in 2024 and India’s thermal capacity will be up from the current 218GW to 283GW by 2032
*Despite strong growth in renewables, coal will continue to play an important role in Chinese power generation needs to 2027
*In SE Asia almost 70% of additional electricity demand from 2025 to 2027 is expected to be met by fossil fuel generation. Indonesia and Vietnam account for 66% of all electricity demand in SE Asia. Coal is the largest source of power generation in 2024 (47% of electricity generation)
*Gas and coal are the predominant sources of electricity generation in Thailand – 65% and 17% respectively.
IEA ‘Electricity 2025 Analysis and forecast to 2027’ (Feb 2025)
There’s an obvious intersectional solution that addresses everyone’s needs.
With the appropriate blessing from an authority like Evans, coal plants can be certified as identifying as wind turbines. Any CO2 they produce, therefore, legally does not exist.
The details are a bit sketchy. They involve taking off-label labels printed with statements like “100% Renewable” and “No Fossil Fuelz Here” and, here’s the important part, someone with government authority must stick them to the foundation of a coal plant in just the right way.
I think this doable for Ithaca. It should only cost $2 billion or so. That’s 95 cents for the labels and about $2 billion to pay Evans and her friends for their blessings.
Beginning?
Every net zero plan which I have seen requires repeal of the laws of physics, chemistry and thermodynamics. However, the vast majority of politicians have net zero knowledge of these fields, so ludicrous net zero plans are still being proposed by them. The politicians are then surprised when their plans hit the buffers of reality.
“Every net zero plan which I have seen requires repeal of the laws of physics, chemistry and thermodynamics.”
and economics
Q: what is the difference between engineers and scientists ?
A: the engineer is required to take economics
An engineer and a scientist are placed at opposite ends of a long hallway. There is a beautiful woman placed exactly half way between them.
The rules are that each time a bell rings, the scientist and engineer can each move halfway towards the woman.
The bell rings and the engineer moves but the scientist doesn’t.
The bell rings again, and again the engineer moves but the scientist doesn’t.
The bell rings a third time, and the same thing happens.
At this point, the engineer asks the scientist why he isn’t moving.
The scientist replies that since they are only allowed to move halfway in each move, he will never be able to actually reach the woman.
The engineer replies, “That may be true, but eventually the difference will be so small that it won’t matter.”
😀😀😀
So, millions of dollars stolen from the people of Ithacas and the thieves simply drove away in their Towncars and Tahoes and Discoverys merrily spewing exhaust and cigar smoke. Got it.
At least millions. That’s probably optimistic.
Seriously how much are you going to steal from 50,000 people? Most of whom don’t have that much to start with.
Are any of these schemes locally financed?
Of those I have read about a lot of other people’s money {read my} was provided. When OP’sM runs out the scheme ends.
State and Federal taxpayers.
According to the article, BlocPower was working with more than one city.
Walter, that’s not how it works. There’s state money and federal money poured down this drain. It doesn’t matter how many people or how poor they are. You might spend a few billion to install a couple of EV charging stations or connect a couple of families to the Internet. Better yet, just consult on how to do it, without the need to do anything tangible at all.
The beauty of it from the scammers’ point of view is that you can sell products and services to the government that even wealthy individuals wouldn’t be willing to purchase with their own money.
It’s so much easier to sell junk to government than to design and build real products that people are willing to buy. And the old way, with competition and the need to satisfy customers, it’s just so archaic. Companies that produce inferior products don’t enjoy equal profits. That’s just not equitable! Every crony should get equal shares.
How many do you steal from, walter? Do you even bother to keep a count?
Diverting money from other things that would benefit the 50K people to something that accomplishes nothing is a form of steeling.
I am sure some got Teslas that they are now burning.
Naw. Environistas all drive real vehicles, only peons are required to own “electric” vehicles, THEY are far too important to relie on such an iffy piece of shit.
Story tip – GB Energy
Ed Miliband admits his solar panels bought for English schools and hospitals are Chinese and may be made using coal
The first project of the Energy Secretary’s new green quango will see it oversee a £180million project to install rooftop panels on 200 school buildings and almost as many NHS sites.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14525363/Ed-Miliband-solar-panels-English-schools-hospitals-Chinese.html
Amazingly, Miliband said that today , 24 hours after Heathrow came to a standstill.
Solar panels? Chocolate teapots are more useful.
There are 124 solar panels installed on the roof of Terminal 2, which serve as a renewable power source for the terminal.
Additionally, Heathrow has a substantial solar installation that generates enough power to allow Terminal 2 to run entirely on renewable electricity.
Miliband wants schools and hospitals to have the same solar panels that failed so visibly at Heathrow , for the entire world to see , just 24 hours ago.
The fire occurred after dark. lol. There’s this…
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2025/03/21/why-heathrow-ditched-its-diesel-generators/
Who could have foreseen that backup power would be needed at night?
Certainly no ‘reputable news outlet such as the BBC, Guardian, or AP’
But next time the fire could be during the day, on one of the approximately 35% of the days of the year that have some sunshine in London. Oh, but those would probably have to be right around late June for the sun to be high enough in the sky for photovoltaics to be effective at latitude 51.5°N, and not too much before or after noon.
Let’s schedule the next fire for 11:50 on 20 June.
(Rain date: 21 June)
Don’t worry RWE are confidently applying to build a solar farm in the North West of England near the coast between Workington and Cockermouth and just shy of 55 degrees North.
It’s not called the ‘Riviera of the Lake District’ for nothing – oh wait a minute.
Aerial views of Heathrow Terminal 2 do not show solar panels. Maybe under construction at this site: 51.471354, -0.446254
Why would they lie about their own airport?
‘We will also be progressing viable local opportunities to build
new solar photovoltaic (PV) generation capacity. We have
installed solar PV on the roof of Terminal 2 and we are exploring
more extensive locations around the perimeter of the airport.’
https://www.heathrow.com/content/dam/heathrow/web/common/documents/company/heathrow-2-0-sustainability/futher-reading/Heathrow%20Net%20Zero%20Plan%20FINAL.pdf
“Evans said that rather than prioritizing reducing emissions, the new plan will prioritize helping residents adapt to living in a warming world…”
It’s easy to learn to adapt to warmer weather, just send them down to Florida for a few months.
And that’s what we should be doing worldwide – adapting to any changes. We’ve done it for thousands of years.
Humans managed to adapt to the end of the last glacial phase.
She even looks the part of Emily Litella. “Never Mind.”
Free sweaters would do it. I am willing to sell them at $1B each.
Te sheer hubris of “leaders” lacking any knowledge of any STEM subjects to believe they can command impossible things to happen, simply by issuing edicts for others to accomplish, is breathtaking
They know how they feel.
They don’t need to issue edicts. All they need to issue are certificates. No STEM knowledge needed. (I wonder how much someone, maybe Al Gore, paid Zulus in S. Africa to not build coal power plants at Empangeni, in order to generate carbon credit certificates that they could buy with taxpayer money?)
If we revoke the law of gravity, airplanes won’t need such big engines in order to fly.
“I don’t believe that this “net zero” thing can actually be done, at least without entirely impoverishing the people. However, I’m completely willing to be proved wrong.”
Even if it could be possible doesn’t mean it should be.
Have to reduce the population by 7.5B and then maybe.
Every one of these stories makes me harken back to a story about how a “baby-Bell”, Pacific Telesis, was going to go into the personal computer space.
They had meetings. They had mission statements. They develop team strategy. They never got around to actually making even the prototypes. They failed. If success could be gained by wishing it into existence, it would have been a great success. The entire adventure was liken to EST training.
It all seemed to be wrapped around the idea that the marketing department always did 99% of all of the production work.
If wishes were horses then beggars would ride.
Washington DC would be a great place for a demonstration project.
The Cult of the Climate Crusaders has it’s very own Aristocracy 2.0, that works with the adherents of Climastrology in their efforts to reverse the laws of nature; human or otherwise! The new elite are very much like that of the 11th and 12th centuries, who mouthed Christian platitudes in public while practicing definite, non-Christian values in their actions towards nonbelievers and other sects.
A modern aristocracy, based on wealth, notoriety, and ruthlessness; the leaders of libtard entities like Ithaca, New York and Commifornia have all of the vices of their predecessors, with few of their virtues. They’ve mostly even given up on self-flagellation, preferring the punishment and robbery of others instead; mostly the poor, but anyone will do if conveniently distant!
From the article: “In short, everything about Ithaca’s Green New Deal is either a scam, or has been quietly abandoned, or both.”
And this same thing will be the case for all these grand Net Zero plans. Net Zero is the Impossible Dream. More and more people are coming to this realization.
Net Zero is losing its luster as reality intrudes.
If El Hierro, in the Spanish Canary Islands, could not go Net Zero, despite very favorable geography, I doubt anywhere in upstate New York can.
Haven’t been to “upstate” NY in years. My memory is that the weather is usually cool and cloudy, with very cold snowy winters, and short, hot, and humid summers. Not many sunny days, and some years, Cornell has quite a good hockey team.
Electrification. Hm. Better buy some new warm coats and blankets. Can they divert/steal power from Niagara falls? Is hydro considered “green” today? Don’t expect it’s a great location for solar, except for the subsidy harvesting. They are just North of the Catskill mountains, maybe small scale hydro. But dams are not green. Did look at the NREL solar potential maps and upstate NY is in the worst zone in the US for solar potential, not quite as bad as Northern Canada, but close second to the US PacNW for worst potential. Guess they’ll be buying power from Hydro Quebec.
Semi-related (it’s the NE US and they have wacko green policies, too), visited my old town outside Boston, Western ‘burbs. Saw lots of residential solar, with lots of panels on North facing roofs, and lots of panels on houses surrounded by beautiful stands of tall mature hardwood trees and pines. My thought at the time was that they would last longer and be nearly as productive if they were mounted in the basements.
There is a hydro plant at Niagra, it was built back in the 1890’s. It takes something like 20% of the water that comes down the Niagra river.
Water rights are divided between Canada (Ontario) and the United States (New York state).
BlocPower {acording to Wikipida}
During his last semester at Columbia Business School, Baird launched BlocPower, a Brooklyn-based technology company.[9] BlocPowers investors include Goldman Sachs, Kapor Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz.[4] BlocPower achieved $93mm in revenue in 2023. Baird stepped down as CEO in 2024.
I did not try to reach out to Donnel Baird; he is a busy guy. Really!
Ahh, Columbia!
Proven tech that doesn’t emit CO2 is nuclear, add in some photovoltaic to cover air conditioning load on sunny afternoons….and that’s the best we’re going to be able to do with technology that functions….and that’s about 4 times the cost of fossil fuels firing gas and steam turbines….
At some point these government officials need to be held accountable for lying and cheating. Evians and her cohorts tasked themselves with a specific mission and have completely failed. They all need to be fired. People need to wake up CO2 is not the control knob for our climate, there is zero need to replace fossil fuels as our energy source, stop lying. Keep in mind that nuclear is also a very fine source of affordable, reliable, clean and dispatchable energy.
Interesting story. I took to Grok to get some more information. Grok tells me
Ithaca’s electrification of the 10 completed buildings, all of which were commercial properties, involved a total clean energy investment of approximately $1.9 million. This figure is derived from multiple reports detailing the initiative as part of the Ithaca Green New Deal. Nearly $1.4 million of this amount was subsidized through eligible state and federal incentives, primarily from New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG) via its NYS Clean Heat Rebate Program, which supported heat pump installations in gas-constrained areas before the program expired. This left Ithaca and its partners, including BlocPower, responsible for covering the remaining portion—roughly $500,000—though exact breakdowns of Ithaca’s direct contribution versus BlocPower’s or other funding sources are not explicitly detailed in public records.
So that’s $190,000 per building. Grok tells me about another walk away, an entity called Alturus.
Ithaca’s broader electrification efforts were initially backed by significant private equity, such as the $100 million from Alturus for the first phase targeting 1,600 buildings (1000 residential and 600 commercial), but the 10-building project predates some of these larger commitments and aligns with a more focused 2023-2024 effort.
Alturus’s lack of response to inquiries and its absence from recent updates suggest its $100 million pledge may not be actively in play for Ithaca anymore, possibly due to the consortium’s breakdown after Aguirre-Torres’s 2022 resignation or a strategic retreat. Without a new announcement, it’s reasonable to infer Alturus funding isn’t currently supporting Ithaca’s efforts, though the city might still seek to revive or replace it.
Judging by the cost of the completed 10 buildings, Alturus’s $100 million would be insufficient even to complete the 600 commercial buildings leaving nothing for the 1000 residential buildings.
Mr. Francis, you should be ashamed of yourself for making fools of so many well intentioned people. BTW how much grant (our tax) money have they spent so far?
Since everything she’s done has been an abject failure, why does Rebecca Evans still have a job? It’s worth noting that her expertise, such as it is, is in Environmental Studies. She has no background whatsoever in hard sciences or engineering.
Peter Principle.