KINGSTON – Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger announced her first executive order Monday regarding how county government will try to survive the worsening global climate crisis.
Metzger discussed and signed the executive order at the Hudson River Maritime Museum on the City of Kingston’s Rondout Creek waterfront, which is prone to flooding as seas and the Hudson River rise as part of the climate crisis.
“It sets the county on a more ambitious path to address the climate crisis, and take advantage of all the economic opportunities that they green economy will bring residents and small businesses,” said Metzger, a former state senator. “It aligns our county climate goals, government operations and facility policies with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act that I worked to help pass in 2019 at the state level.”
The goal is to ensure the energy needed for county facility operations is acquired without need of fossil fuels, and systems needed to serve facilities and buildings will be eventually become more energy efficient.
“We’re starting with new construction that has to be all electric, and all the county buildings and facilities are going to be assessed for not only for renewable energy, but also for battery storage. That’s really important to resilience, to be able to keep the lights in county buildings when the power goes out. Eventually county HVAC systems, boilers and furnaces need to be replaced, and we’ll be replacing those with energy efficient all-electric systems.”
