For Immediate Release: March 23, 2026
Ruth Foster, 518 588-0187
Mark Dunlea, 518 860-3725
SHARE Calls for Capitol Complex to Be Part of State’s Push for Thermal Energy Networks
Wants Hochul to Release Updated Decarbonization Plans
The Sheridan Hollow Alliance for Renewable Energy (SHARE) says that due to environmental justice concerns, the conversion of the state Capitol complex needs to be a top priority for the hundreds of millions of dollars the state is investing in building thermal energy networks. The State’s climate law requires that 35% of new climate funding benefit disadvantaged communities.
The Capitol complex is powered by a polluting facility located in the Sheridan Hollow environmental justice community.
“Unlike other EJ problems, it has been the state itself that has polluted this low-income community of color for more than a century, by burning coal, oil, trash, and now gas to operate the Sheridan Avenue Steam Plant. Our local residents deserve relief from the state’s pollution,” said SHARE co-chair Merton Simpson, the Albany County Legislator who represents the neighborhood.
SHARE also called on the Hochul administration to release the decarbonization feasibility plans that state lawmakers required in the 2023-24 state budget, for the NY Power Authority to complete by January 2026, for the 15 state buildings with the largest carbon footprint. This included the state Capitol complex. State officials now say they won’t release the mandated plans until June due to the “need to redact details” about the buildings, apparently for security reasons.
At least for the Empire State Plaza, a more limited prior feasibility study had already been released in May 2024. The study included support for a geothermal project for the plaza (an initiative first proposed by SHARE in 2017), but proposed waiting a decade before starting. Local groups want the state to formally commit to geothermal and at least start the project with some of the buildings, including the Capitol itself. The states of Michigan, Oklahoma, and Colorado use geothermal for their Capitols.
The state included $200 million for thermal energy projects in last year’s state budget.
Upgrade NY, a coalition of environmental groups and unions, along with a bipartisan group of lawmakers, recently called for an additional $200 million in this year’s budget. $126 million would go to “shovel-ready projects” at SUNY campuses, including Farmingdale State College, the University at Buffalo, University at Albany, Stony Brook University, and SUNY Potsdam. They want another $74 million for pilot programs in eight communities: Haverstraw, Mount Vernon, Rockefeller Center and Chelsea in Manhattan, along with Brooklyn, Syracuse, Troy, and Ithaca. Missing from that list, however, is the replacement of the Sheridan Avenue Steam Plant, as well as funding to expand two NYSERDA projects in low-income Albany neighborhoods, including Sheridan Hollow.
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