Shining Opportunity for Area’s Grape Growers

Bob Ciesielski is Co-Chair of Atlantic Chapter Energy Committee and an Niagara Group Executive Committee Member. Published in the Dunkirk Observer on June 8, 2026.

Currently a weak market for Concord grapes in New York and Pennsylvania has been recognized. More than 100 Concord grape growers along Lake Erie were informed in March by Refresco that the processor would no longer be purchasing their produce. Farmers in other states and countries have been using solar arrays and wind turbines and storage batteries on portions of their property to ensure financial stability during difficult economic times and growing periods.

Besides loss of buyers and poor markets, agriculture is also subjected to more extreme weather events. These include warmer late winters followed by freezes, which have been affecting growers throughout the Northeast.

Solar arrays, wind turbines and batteries storage facilities can be installed on small portions of acreage to provide a guaranteed income to farmers. The resulting lease payments are sometimes the difference between keeping a farm in production or giving it up to land developers.

Solar arrays produce much more electricity than ethanol corn and result in the grower receiving more dollars per acre. Agrivoltaics is now making it possible to raise sheep among solar panels, and in many cases alternate crops. (See ACE NY Agrivoltaics report). The land, being free from pesticides and herbicides use, can often replenish its natural fertility during the long-term lease period. Birds, bees and native wildflowers return to the area.

Newly constructed unsubsidized solar and land-based wind generators coupled with battery storage are now the least expensive forms of electricity globally according to the 2025 18th Edition of the Lazard Cost of Electricity+ Report. In 2025 90% of new energy sources installed worldwide were solar and wind arrays.

Nuclear Power is Costly and Wasteful

Sara Schultz, Niagara Group Executive Committee Member and Treasurer. Published in the Buffalo News on May 13, 2026.

Nuclear power is suddenly in style again, but it’s the wrong fit for our energy needs (“Hochul calls for even bigger expansion of nuclear power,” 1/13/26). Nuclear plants take too long to build. Starting construction in 2033, as Hochul plans, would not produce power until the 2040s. They are painted as meeting our immediate power needs when the reverse is true. Scientists from Berkley Earth and Copernicus calculated that we will breach the 1.5* threshold by 2029. Without serious investment in clean, renewable energy now, dirty emissions will skyrocket, driving the weather disasters that cost families so much. Also, nuclear plants are usually much more costly than originally envisioned. New York State families will bear their enormous burden years before any new power even arrives.

Even without producing carbon emissions, nuclear power is both dirty and wasteful. A steady stream of uranium goes in, and a steady stream of nuclear waste comes out, radioactive for centuries. Communities with nuclear waste dumps have experienced dangerous radioactive leaks. The company shutting down Indian Point was ready to pour radioactive waste into the Hudson River. No community wants it. While Hochul touts nuclear power, she’s sitting on the Clean Air Initiative, which would save families billions in energy costs and pay for both developing more clean power projects and strengthening our communities against weather disasters.

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are the Future of Driving

Janet Lenichek, Chair, Sierra Club Niagara Group, Published in Buffalo News in April, 2026

I’m responding to the letter entitled EVs Present a host of Problems. With regard to the “movement to have everyone drive EVs”, I have no idea what the writer is referencing. No one expects a complete conversion to EV transportation immediately. 

Decades ago there were no hybrid or EV vehicles available on the market. As people decide to replace old vehicles with new ones, I would hope they would look at all the options available on the market today, including EVs, hybrids, plug-in hybrids and traditional vehicles. That’s what I did in 2025 when I bought my Chevy Equinox EV.

The same goes for home heating and cooling options. We have far more options now than we did 20 years ago. Before simply replacing a boiler, furnace or AC unit, property owners should do some homework and look at all the new energy saving appliances available.

These types of conversions over time are not that different from what happened with phones. Many people gradually gave up landlines and bought battery powered cell phones because cell phones offered features that landlines never could.

In fact, cell phones use the same lithium ion batteries that I have in my Chevy. Granted, my Chevy EV battery is much larger and more powerful.

EV batteries are improving all the time regarding safety, charging times, and distance traveled on a full charge (range). Consumer Reports notes the average driver in the U.S. puts on 26 miles per day, so charging overnight at home is now the norm. 

The chance of having a fire in a car that runs on gasoline is 20 times greater than the chance of a fire in an EV. Those are the numbers currently available based on data from countries that have far more EVs on the road than we do in the US. My EV is much safer than my internal combustion vehicles ever were.

Sticking to fossil fuels means unpredictable and unaffordable bills for New Yorkers 

Bob Ciesielski is Co-Chair of Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter’s Energy Committee, Published in Buffalo News in March, 2026

Weakening the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) will not help New Yorkers' wallets. The most cost effective pathway forward for New Yorkers energy bills includes moving rapidly and responsibly away from dirty and expensive fuels like gas and oil. We need to transition to renewables, then use this clean power for widespread electrification. Fossil fuel prices are volatile and highly susceptible to price spikes caused by extreme weather, wars and other global market factors. Sticking to fossil fuels means unpredictable, unaffordable bills for New Yorkers. The 2025 Consumer Price Index showed that heating gas prices rose 3 to 4 times the rate of general inflation.

There are economic and climate advantages of renewable energy. New York State imports almost all its fossil fuels. The State would benefit enormously from creating a renewable economy. Doing so would eliminate the cost of fossil fuels into the State estimated at $50 billion annually (U.S. Energy Information Agency State Energy Data System). It would also create renewable energy jobs and industry. To retreat towards a fossil fuel-based economy as is being demanded by the Trump Administration, will only hurt our residents, job creation and our economy.  Continuing to burn fossil fuels for energy and heat is, in fact, a “self-imposed financial penalty”. Therefore, increasing renewables, battery energy storage, and electrification to the maximum extent possible is in the State’s best interest.

Home grown renewable energy built and generated in New York State is the most practical way to reduce the rising costs and risks of climate change while creating jobs and stabilizing energy prices. Solar and wind linked to battery storage are less expensive for generating electricity than gas or nuclear. When considering the cost of energy, utility-scale solar costs between $0.04 and $0.08 cents per kilowatt-hour, even without subsidies. With battery storage, solar costs between $0.05 and $0.13 cents per kilowatt-hour. By comparison, generating electricity from fracked gas costs $0.13 to $0.26 cents per kWh. Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy+ (LCOE+), 18th ed., June 16, 2025.

The more power we generate from wind and solar here in New York, the less we’re exposed to global fuel price spikes. Once a renewable energy generator with storage facility is built, it provides constant electricity year after year without the need to continuously purchase ever more expensive and market volatile fossil fuels – a constant and increasingly expensive addition to a homeowners’ budget.

With federal climate oversight weakening, the responsibility for meaningful action increasingly falls to the State. In this landscape, laws such as the CLCPA serve as essential protection against unchecked pollution. It also benefits New York to remain as a leader in renewable energy nationally. Rather than scaling back commitments, this is a time for firm resolve and forward-looking leadership to safeguard public health, our pocketbooks, and ensure a cleaner, more resilient future.

Nuclear Power is not Failproof - Jay Wopperer

Jay Wopperer has been a member of the Sierra Club Niagara Group for many decades. His "Another Voice" piece was published in the Buffalo News on 2/1/26.

I am against Governor Hochul’s initiative of nuclear power projects in New York State because the technology is not failproof. In the past, there have been many nuclear reactor failures around the world. This includes the 1979 meltdown of Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, PA; the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl, Ukraine; and in 2011, the meltdown at Fukushima, Japan – as well as many other events.

The best technology and engineering were used to construct these nuclear power reactors, yet they failed. These projects are expensive to construct and require a long time to build. Solar and wind power are much cheaper and takes less time to activate. Nuclear power requires transport and long-term storage of nuclear waste. How can this be done safely?

In 1986, I attended a public meeting of the West Valley Demonstration Project. West Valley was a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant south of Buffalo that reprocessed spent fuel rods from nuclear power reactors across the country. The company walked away, leaving NYS and US taxpayers to pay the bill for the cleanup of the site. I asked the expert scientists there if the radiation sensor alarms at the project ever went off. The response was yes, but the isotopes were from the Fukushima meltdown. The radiation had travelled around the planet!

Do we want to take a chance on a technology that has not proven to be consistently safe, and where the smallest human, mechanical or natural error can be devastating?

Energy Plan must keep to Climate Goals - Bob Ciesielski

Bob Ciesielski is the Co-Chair of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter Energy Committee and Vice Chair of the Niagara Group. His "Another Voice" piece was printed in the Buffalo News on 10/1/25.

It’s essential that the New York State energy plan under consideration must keep the state in a leadership role to meet our renewable energy and emission reduction goals.

This is a crucial time in the world’s history of energy use and climate change. New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) set goals for 70% of our electricity to be produced from renewable sources and a 40% reduction in climate altering emissions by 2030.

The New York Climate Action Council has recommended the electrification of all sectors of the state’s economy to the maximum extent possible as the least expensive and quickest way to achieve emission reductions.

It is now clear that the CLCPA and the Climate Action Council ticked all the correct energy and emission boxes to attain a prosperous and sustainable future. On the question of affordability, unsubsidized solar and land-based wind power coupled with battery storage provide electricity cheaper than gas, oil or coal power and are much less expensive than nuclear power. As a result, last year, 90% of new electric generation facilities worldwide were fueled by solar power.

California’s electric grid is operating for long stretches of the day most days of the year on 100% renewable energy stored in batteries.

China, in the first five months of this year, installed 144 gigawatts of solar and wind capacity, enough to power 115 million average American homes. China’s greenhouse gas emissions have begun to drop this year.

The Trump administration’s efforts to further subsidize the fossil fuel industry and destroy renewable energy industries is causing energy prices to rise. As an example, the Revolution Wind project off the coasts of Connecticut and Rhode Island, recently canceled by the federal government, would have provided enough clean renewable electricity to power 350,000 homes for the next 25 years at approximately half of the current cost.

The timeline to meet New York’s goals may be delayed by the federal government, but a properly structured state energy plan can do much to help attain our targets and support cleaner, less expensive power sources. We urge Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Energy Planning Board to strongly support the goals of our state’s climate law.

WNY Legislators Did their Job. Now it’s the Governor’s Turn. - Bill Nowak

Bill Nowak is a longtime member of the Sierra Club Niagara Group. His "Another Voice" piece was printed in the Buffalo News on 9/22/25.

Families across Buffalo and Western New York are bracing for hundreds of dollars in extra charges thanks to back-to-back energy bill hikes from National Fuel and NYSEG. National Fuel is on track to cost the average household over $200 more a year by 2028 on the delivery side of the bill alone, with the first painful increases already landing. And NYSEG? Bills are jumping so fast in Erie County with the company now angling for yet another hike, 23.7% more for electricity and a staggering 33.5% more for gas.

Governor Hochul has stepped up and blasted utility rate hikes, calling on the PSC to “ensure these companies have the resources to keep our energy grid going but are not making additional profit off the backs of ratepayers”.  She’s right and now she has the chance to walk the talk.

Awaiting her signature is a bill that scraps one of the worst utility corporate giveaways on our books: the 100-foot rule, which is nothing but an outdated utility handout. For decades it’s let gas companies run new pipelines to buildings that are within 100-feet of existing service lines and dump the tab on the rest of us.  That “free” construction isn’t free at all.  In just 2022 and 2023, we ratepayers got stuck with nearly $400 million in charges.

Why should struggling families in Buffalo be forced to pay higher rates so gas utilities can keep expanding their monopoly empires?  New York’s climate law requires us to slash gas use and, instead, turn to building safer, higher quality buildings with modern, clean alternatives to gas. The 100-foot rule makes no sense in 2025.

Lawmakers have already done their part. Earlier this year they passed A.8888/S.8417 to end the 100-foot rule and five of seven Buffalo-area legislators voted yes. They saw the chance to deliver relief to their constituents. And voters are with them. A December 2024 Siena poll found that 43% of voters said reducing the cost of living should be Albany’s top priority in 2025, with 71% identifying the cost of living as one of their top two issues.. Polling also shows majorities of Democrats, independents and nearly half of Republicans want laws that update our energy policies passed, with especially strong support upstate, in union households and among Black and Latino New Yorkers.

The affordability crisis in New York is undeniable.  Energy costs are a huge part of that. We need  Governor Hochul’s strong focus on affordability to translate into a signature on this measure designed to cut our utility bills.

National Fuel Gas (NFG) wants you to promote Gas for Heating - Janet Lenichek

Janet Lenichek is Chair of Sierra Club Niagara Group. Her LTE was published in the Buffalo News in September of 2025.

Mr. Colpoys, the president of National Fuel Gas (NFG), writes that New York needs to keep burning gas “for the foreseeable future”. (“Western New Yorkers: Now Is your chance to shape New York’s energy future," 8/27/25) Mr. Colpoys is in the business of extracting, transporting and selling natural gas, so he seeks to convince NYS not to greatly reduce the use of natural gas as an energy source over the next 15 years.

The tobacco companies knew that smoking greatly increased the risk  of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, but their profits depended on denying or ignoring that inconvenient fact. Similarly, Mr. Colpoys doesn’t mention that burning natural gas pollutes our air and contributes to high levels of both respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses in NYS, including childhood asthma.

Many of us in WNY comfortably heat our homes and cook our food with electricity that can be generated from wind, sun and/or hydropower. (Back up power can come from vehicle and in home batteries which are becoming less expensive every year.) Natural gas is not required anymore and it is more expensive than solar and wind power. NFG will soon be instituting regular rate increases. The build out of gas pipelines is one reason that ratepayers have to pay more for gas services.

As of 2025, renewable energy from solar and wind are far less expensive than natural gas because no pipelines have to be built. My own comments on the NYS Draft Energy Plan will urge Gov. Hochul to stay true to New York’s goal of managing an affordable and reliable transition to a clean energy future by quickly expanding solar and wind power while reducing the use of natural gas as an energy source.

Let NYS know that you are tired of paying for the expansion of gas pipelines and want to see a faster build out of renewable solar and wind power in NYS! That’s the best way to keep your energy bills from skyrocketing over the next 15 years.