Highlands Current Audio Stories

Beacon band releases debut album

After Justin Mayfield left a corporate gig to freelance, he experienced plenty of setbacks. But a former boss called, and all is well. Just as blues artists use real-life experiences to craft their trade and dig deep, the "rejections," as Mayfield puts it, fueled the album Real Life Story, to be released Wednesday (Aug. 27).

"I indulged myself and started speedwriting 16 or 17 songs in one pop," says Mayfield, who moved to Beacon from Brooklyn in 2015. "Then I got the band together. It was a condensed, inspired time frame."

Mayfield calls his group the Rivers Community Band, after his middle name, which is a thing in his family.

An audio engineer, he volunteers at the Fareground community kitchen. "I realized after leaving the city that at this age [37], it's harder to make connections," he says. As "old friends move off in different directions, I enjoy getting out of the house and helping others while I help myself."

The songs on the new release meander and fracture the structure of standard pop tunes. A jazzy, psychedelic Grateful Dead space jam aura underpins the approach, and the laid-back "Talk" exemplifies the twists and turns.

Despite the difficulty anticipating its direction, the tune is catchy, and an instrumental interlude leads to a laconic guitar solo by Paul Kleinschmidt, whose intertwining lines mesh with the mood.

Nothing unfolds in a hurry, including Dan McGroarty's bass. A good portion of the recording took place in drummer Joe Maltese's Beacon basement.

"I like a lot of chords and wandering melodies," says Mayfield. "We're on the fringes of sound but not extremely experimental. There are traditional song structures and harmonic conventions, but I like to twist things up a little and strive for the unusual."

Mayfield, who played plenty of jazz in college, strums a nylon-string acoustic guitar, typically associated with classical and flamenco styles, and a synthesizer, the only two instruments on the title track.

Some of the cryptic lyrics are political, as in the songs "Monocult," "Where to Go" and "When You Ask." Some tunes reflect Mayfield's worries about landing a job when he cut loose from the corporate world, like "Lonely Assignment" and "Talk": "In recent days / I've struck out with my peers / So let's talk about the ways / our plans have not been fair."

Relationships are stormy, and Mayfield laments the loss of human connection. In "Describe the Castle," he sings: "But a glance or a brief word my way / while my insides were all decaying / could hold me over for at least a day."

On the title track, Mayfield comes to terms with his existence: "You can't escape this world, but it's alright / just enjoy your own real-life story / sincerely but light."

Real Life Story is available at riverscommunityband.bandcamp.com.

Must be at least 65 and meet income criteria

With funding from the state's Cooling Assistance Program depleted, Dutchess County has allocated $35,000 to provide window air-conditioning units to eligible residents.

The program is available to residents who are 65 years or older or have a medical condition worsened by heat; don't already have an air conditioner in their home; and meet income eligibility requirements (for example, about $40,000 annually or less per month for a household with one person, or about $52,000 for a household with two people).

For information, contact the Office for the Aging at 845-486-2555 or dub.sh/dutchess-aging. The program is being coordinated by the Office for the Aging and the Department of Community and Family Services and implemented by the Community Action Partnership for Dutchess County.

Some say customers are spending less

Every receipt brings Richard Shea confirmation.

For 100 pieces of 10-foot-long two-by-fours that "not long ago" cost $400, the construction company owned by the former Philipstown supervisor just paid $661. Most of the lumber comes from Canada, whose wood products face tariffs that rose to 35 percent this month.

Higher import taxes on aluminum and steel are also driving up prices on metal products ranging from electrical wiring to ladders and scaffolding, he said.

Customers have responded in predictable ways. Two projects totaling $100,000 were cancelled, he said, and others have been scaled back. People are deferring maintenance such as roof replacements. "By this point in the summer, we have done at least a dozen roofs," he said. "This summer, we have done two, and one was due to a fire so it couldn't be delayed."

Five months into the Trump administration's blitzkrieg of tariffs, businesses in the Highlands, and by extension their customers, are starting to see higher prices that can be attributed to the added costs of importing raw supplies and finished products from nearly 70 countries that trade with the U.S. - even as higher levies on imports from China, our largest trading partner, have been paused for three months.

After the introduction in April of 10 percent "reciprocal" tariffs on most imports, products from most countries began being taxed at 15 percent under higher levies launched on Aug. 7. Some tariffs are as high as 50 percent. The average tariff of 18.6 percent is the highest since 1933 and will cost the average household $2,400 this year, according to calculations by the Budget Lab at Yale University.

The combined tariffs disproportionately affect clothes and textiles, according to the Budget Lab. It estimates shoe prices will rise nearly 40 percent temporarily and 19 percent in the longer term, while apparel will rise 37 immediately and 18 percent in the longer term.

Susan Johnson, who co-owns the Denning's Point Distillery in Beacon, said the prices of bottles from China, Eastern Europe and Mexico that hold the company's bourbons, brandys, gins and vodkas were rising, along with "spotty availability."

At Cold Spring Fish in Philipstown, Alejandra Awad said she is seeing increases of 15 percent to 25 percent in supplies like paper goods, food containers and bags, and in the fish she buys at Hunts Point. She has tried to keep sticker prices stable, but that means smaller profits.

"There is a lot of uncertainty that we are feeling as a small business," said Awad. "We are not sure the extent of the consequences and how much it will affect us in the long term."

The tariffs will almost certainly result in higher food prices, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. The U.S. doesn't make enough of some products, like bananas or coffee, to satisfy demand. Along with fish, beer and liquor are likely to get more expensive, the foundation said.

The U.S. Wine Trade Alliance and other alcohol industry trade groups recently sent a letter to President Donald Trump that warned a 15 percent tariff on European wines and spirits could result in 25,000 lost jobs in the U.S. and cost the industry nearly $2 billion in sales.

General Motors said on July 22 that the impact of the tariffs could get more pronounced in the third quarter. GM has estimated the tariffs will decrease its bottom line by $4 billion to $5 billion. Toyota reported on Aug. 7 a 37 percent drop in profits in the second quarter, cutting its full-year earnings forecasts.

Ralph Moran, whose Marterra Specialty Foods in Philipstown imports salmon, sea bass, crab meat, wagyu beef and other products from Chile, along with salmon from Norway, said he paid minimal tariffs before Trump began his second term in January. Now, imports from Chile face a levy of 10 percent and from Norway, 15 percent.

Their impact on what customers pay is less straightforward because wholesale prices for seafood are expected to fluc...

$50 million in upgrades to be completed by fall 2028

The Beacon school district's $50 million capital improvement project, approved by voters last year, will begin this fall and continue through late 2028. One of the major upgrades will be air conditioning.

Building condition surveys in 2023 and 2024 led the district to propose sweeping improvements to its six schools - its largest capital project in at least 15 years - on the May 2024 ballot. Voters approved the measure, 711-244.

The school board on Monday (Aug. 11) awarded PowerGen Electric, an Orange County firm, and ENL Mechanical, of Somerville, New Jersey, contracts of $108,450 and $1.74 million, respectively, to begin the work, which will commence with replacement of the cooling system and water heaters at Beacon High School once air conditioning has been shut down for the year. The boiler will be replaced in the spring or summer, after the winter heating season, the district said.

The baseball and softball fields at the high school will be rebuilt, beginning in the spring of 2026, with artificial-turf infields and grass outfields. The tennis courts will also be resurfaced.

The summer of 2026 will be busy, with security improvements made at five schools. Security vestibules like the one at Glenham Elementary, where a visitor's ID must be confirmed before a person enters, will be installed at Beacon High School, Rombout Middle School and South Avenue, Sargent and J.V. Forrestal elementaries.

Upgrades also will be made that summer to Seeger Theater at the high school, while air conditioning will be installed in the cafeteria and gymnasium at South Avenue to create "cooling centers" for students on especially hot days. Each of the four elementary schools and Rombout Middle School will have their gyms and cafeterias air-conditioned over the course of the project.

Although not initially part of the proposal approved by voters, architects devised ways to stay within budget while adding air conditioning to up to 50 percent of the classrooms in the elementary schools, including at South Avenue in the summer of 2026. Second-floor rooms and those with southern or eastern exposures will be prioritized.

Sargent will get the cooling centers and AC in select classrooms in the spring of 2027. In the summer of 2027, Glenham will get cooling centers plus AC in select classrooms, and the middle school will get cooling centers, bathroom upgrades and a new roof. In 2028, Forrestal will get cooling centers and AC, a new roof and window and bathroom repairs.

The AC installations will make it easier for Beacon to comply with a law enacted by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Dec. 14 that requires school districts to lower the temperature if a classroom or support space reaches 82 degrees. The areas must be evacuated if they hit 88 degrees.

"High heat" days are increasing locally. Ninety-degree days in the Hudson Valley have grown from about 10 a year in the 1970s to 30 or more today, according to data compiled by the New York State Water Resources Institute at Cornell University. By 2050, the number is projected to rise to 50.

Among the other capital improvements, Forrestal will have an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant entrance installed next summer, and Glenham will get a new roof and bathroom upgrades. Beacon High School will receive improvements to its swimming pool.

Beginning in the spring of 2027 and continuing through the fall, district administrative offices on Education Drive will get ADA-compliant bathrooms, an elevator and a new boiler. A 30-year-old underground fuel tank at the transportation garage will be replaced with an above-ground tank.

Roof work will continue at Rombout in 2028, along with a metal deck replacement at the middle school and replacement of the septic system at Glenham, which is not served by the municipal sewer system.

Finally, the district will spread the installation of new fire alarm and public-address systems at its buildings over the three-year project, Per...

Artist creates what she calls 'welded drawings'

Marieken Cochius paints, sculpts, draws and works with felt. But around seven years ago, she donned a welder's mask and picked up a blowtorch.

Although her style keeps evolving, she began to work with flat sheets of steel and create what she calls "welded drawings."

Three of her wood sculptures are on display outside the Ligenza Moore Gallery in Philipstown and on Saturday (Aug. 16), she will open a solo exhibition, Axons, at the Garrison Art Center with a 5 p.m. reception. Her work is also showing at galleries in New York City; Clifton Springs, New York; and Lenox, Massachusetts. Soon, she'll be in Newburgh at the revivified New Holland Gallery.

Asked about her Dutch heritage, she replies "born and raised" and cracks a deep smile. "But I always wanted to leave after high school."

She came to the U.S. as an au pair and settled in Brooklyn, working as an assistant to Eddie Adams, who snapped the iconic photo of a street execution in Saigon during the Vietnam War. Now she lives in Wappingers Falls; the village commissioned a wood sculpture for its Boathouse community center.

Cochius is a professional organizer and back then, "my clients went to the Hamptons every summer, so I sublet my apartment and traveled all over the country in a 1982 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. It was like driving a couch."

She learned to weld 25 years ago while working in a prop shop that made Christmas decorations for department stores, including moving metal arms. "I couldn't believe I got paid to do that," she says.

After a hiatus with the torch, she experimented by building reliefs on a piece of sheet metal and turning the results into something unrecognizable by playing with the voltage and wire speed of the welding apparatus to make the metal warp and bend on its own.

Sometimes she pokes holes through the surface and uses a Dremel to hash out the details. Peering at one of her creations, she compares a mass of material to a stack of dimes: "It's like blowing bubbles."

Despite the industrial origin and process, her work resembles organic matter: roots, leaves, tree bark, blood vessels and the floor of a forest with mushrooms popping up in "Triptych of the Universe," which will be displayed at Garrison.

Nothing is wasted and sometimes Cochius cuts away pieces to reuse. The process is meticulous, as one might expect from a professional organizer as reflected in her tidy open-air welding station and immaculate studio.

Lately, she's incorporating the detritus of the process into her work, including the byproduct slag and the burnt wire emitted by the welding machine, which she melts on top of the metallic sheet, "playing and drawing with it." Table sculptures featuring wire (also at Garrison) look like they're wrapped in lace or cobwebs.

A couple of years ago, Cochius began finishing pieces with a blowtorch, which adds a patina akin to oil in a puddle: the colors change depending on the light and the viewer's angle. And she started working with sheets of rusted zinc taken from the roof of a dark green barn that houses her woodshop.

The metallic abstracts unfold as she works. "I have no idea what I'm going to do until I get started at 9 a.m. every day," she says. "I don't wait for inspiration, I just work things out as I go, asking questions like, 'I wonder what would happen if I did this?' "

Showing off her blowtorch, Cochius flashes another smile and says, "This is so much fun."

The Garrison Art Center, at 23 Garrison's Landing, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Monday. Axons and a show by Bill Schuck, Remnants and Schemes, continue through Sept. 14. Cochius will speak about her work at 2 p.m. on Aug. 23.

250 Years Ago (August 1875)

Gen. George Washington wrote to the New York Legislature expressing concern about New York vessels providing the British with provisions at Boston harbor, especially since the redcoats were expected to move next to New York City. "It must give great concern to any considerate mind … that there are men among us so basely sordid as to counteract all our exertions for the sake of a little gain."

Patriots in New York City plan to remove 21 cannon from the battery at the foot of Manhattan under fire of the British man-of-war, HMS Asia, from the harbor. The New York Provincial Congress resolves that the guns be dismantled and taken to a secure location. Capt. John Lamb and 60 men begins the work while Capt. George Vandeput sends a barge of men to investigate. After a brief firefight, some residents nearby flee across the Hudson River to New Jersey.

In Albany the Northern Indian Department meets with the Iroquois, in which the Native Americans agree to remain neutral.

Patriots in New York City, organized into units, attack a force of loyalists and British troops.

The New York Provincial Congress contracts with Joseph Hallett to import 15 tons of gunpowder and 1,400 muskets.

150 Years Ago (August 1875)

The Cold Spring Recorder noted that, soon after Mr. O'Brian's dog was shot dead at the foot of Fair Street, a dog belonging to Mr. Groundwater was stabbed in the neck on Furnace Street and dogs owned by J.E. Dore and James Balley were poisoned. A pig on Kemble Avenue also died, probably after eating poison set out for dogs and cats.

A dozen "well-fed aboriginees" camped overnight in the grove north of Secor Street in Nelsonville, according to The Recorder. When a performance scheduled for the next day was postponed due to rain, the Native Americans earned pennies (the equivalent of quarters today) by shooting them off posts with arrows.

Three merchants installed hand pumps and hoses to bring water to their elevated Main Street buildings.

A group of older West Point cadets who attacked a plebe at his guard post as what they said was a prank were surprised when he clubbed two over the head with his musket and stabbed another in the thigh with his bayonet.

All labor was suspended for a day at West Point so guns could be fired at intervals to honor former President Andrew Johnson, who died July 31.

A "nightwalker" was arrested late on a Tuesday and jailed but released in the morning without charges. The Recorder praised the action, saying that "if no one is allowed to prowl around after midnight, we shall surely have no burglaries."

The Recorder noted that a dog carcass had been lying on Main Street at Kemble Avenue for a week, perhaps because the village ordinance did not specify who should remove it.

A street vendor selling peaches was stopped by the constable and asked for his license. Although he carried a peddling permit from Peekskill, he pleaded ignorance of the Cold Spring law. The officer escorted him to the village limits.

He Said, She Said

After an accusation in August 1875 by Constable Travis, prosecutors charged Robert Cronk and his wife, Elizabeth, with keeping a "disorderly house" and a "resort of thieves" at their home near Cold Spring known as The Willows.

Justice William Clark heard testimony. Constable Travis said that he knew The Willows "to be a home of bad repute. I know Eliza McClean [a boarder] has a bad character, and Mary Ida [a daughter] is bad, too."

A.R. Newcomb told the judge that he had visited The Willows and seen "a good many names, obscene pictures, half-nude women and various names written and drawn on the walls." He added: "The general reputation among officers" is that it was "a house of prostitution and for thieves."

Elizabeth Cronk said the names and drawings were on the walls when they moved in two years earlier. She said there was "never any noise or disturbance" and that she "never kept anything but water to drink." Her father backed her up, saying the house was alway...

Electric, gas users will see higher bills

Central Hudson's charges for delivering electric and gas to customers in Beacon, Philipstown and other areas of its territory will rise over the next three years under a plan unanimously approved on Thursday (Aug. 14) by the state Public Service Commission.

The monthly costs for a typical customer will rise by $5.43 during the first year, which covers July 1 of this year to June 30, 2026. Over the subsequent two years, customers will pay an additional $6.25 and $6.62 per month, respectively.

Gas bills will also increase - by $7.73 per month in the first year for an average residential customer, and then by $11.27 and $12.37 for the final two years of the agreement.

The PSC largely approved a three-year proposal forged between Central Hudson, the Department of Public Service and large businesses and institutions such as Walmart.

The plan will produce $96 million in electricity and $48 million in gas revenues, which Central Hudson says it will spend on infrastructure; labor costs and incentive compensation; energy-efficiency and heat-pump programs; and a 9.5 percent return on equity for its shareholders.

"I believe the proposal satisfies a balance of the various interests involved, both protecting consumers and ensuring the long-term viability of the utility," said Rory Christian, who chairs the PSC.

Under the proposal, Central Hudson agreed to provide customer bills in Spanish, continue outreach to households unaware they are eligible for energy assistance and award up to $200,000 in grants for workforce training in green energy fields.

The plan drew criticism from advocacy groups and elected officials, who cited a series of rate increases approved by the PSC for Central Hudson's 315,000 electric customers and 90,000 gas accounts. The most recent, approved in July 2024, added $12.65 per month to the average monthly electric bill and $12.25 to gas.

A month after that approval, Central Hudson submitted a request for a one-year increase to electric and gas delivery rates of $9 a month. The three-year agreement approved on Thursday replaces that request.

Communities for Local Power, a Kingston-based advocate for renewable energy, said the size of the new rate hikes "is outrageous and is clearly unaffordable and unsustainable."

The Public Utility Law Project, an advocate for utility customers, took a neutral position - supporting measures that it said will improve customer service during extreme weather and expand language access but also acknowledging the increases will "place additional strain on household budgets."

Agency: Guatemalan man deported on July 18

A Beacon resident arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in June has been removed from the country, the agency said on Thursday (Aug. 7).

ICE officers detained Santos Belarmino Perez Suchite on June 20 for violations of the Immigration and Nationality Act, an agency spokesperson said.

Perez, who lived on North Elm Street, is a Guatemalan national who "admitted he entered the United States by crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in 2024," said Marie Ferguson, the ICE representative. "Not only did this alien blatantly disregard our nation's immigration laws, but he also jeopardized community and officer safety by attempting to flee on foot, leading officials on a brief chase before his capture."

ICE removed Perez from the U.S. on July 18, Ferguson said, without specifying where he was sent. The agency did not respond to follow-up questions about Perez's age, location or whether he had a criminal record.

Beacon Mayor Lee Kyriacou announced on June 20 that ICE agents had made an arrest in Beacon after his office was informed by residents about their presence. While city officials stated they were unaware of who ICE had detained or the nature of any charges, Police Chief Tom Figlia confirmed with the Federal Bureau of Investigation that an enforcement operation had taken place.

"I want to make clear that at no time leading up to this incident did city staff, including our Police Department, have any notice of or involvement in ICE operations," Kyriacou said that day. "As a city, we remain committed to our safe, inclusive community policy, to preserving rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and to avoiding any policies which engender fear among law-abiding families."

Figlia said the following week that ICE returned on June 21, but he did not know if anyone was detained. ICE did not respond at the time to a request from The Current for information. The agency responded to a second request this month but only released information about Perez.

"Under President Trump's leadership, Secretary [of Homeland Security Kristi] Noem is reversing former President Biden's catch-and-release policy that allowed millions of unvetted illegal aliens to be let loose on American streets," Ferguson said. "It comes down to one question: Is this person violating our nation's immigration laws? If the answer is yes, we're going to remove them."

A Beacon resident wrote in a comment after The Current's June 20 story that he saw the ICE officers on North Elm Street. "ICE, the FBI and what appeared to be one police officer (not from the City of Beacon) staked out the house, parked at different locations along the street around 6 a.m., presumably to apprehend him on his morning commute," he wrote, noting that he recognized Perez from the neighborhood. "We talk often. We say hello daily." The federal agents were armed and wearing body armor, he wrote.

Arrests by ICE are up significantly since Trump returned to office in January. According to data provided in response to Freedom of Information Law requests by the Deportation Data Project, a team of academics and attorneys, the agency has in 2025 arrested 4,842 people in New York state through July 29, or 67 percent more than during the same period in 2024.

Joseph Lavetsky, an immigration attorney in Beacon, said that people who have been in the U.S. for less than two years, or who don't have proof that they've been in the country for more than two years, are the most at risk because they could be subject to expedited removal.

The New York Civil Liberties Union on Aug. 1, along with other organizations, filed a federal lawsuit challenging what it called the "cruel, unlawful policy" that allows ICE to arrest people for showing up to court and prevents them from pursuing immigration cases. The suit alleges that Trump administration policies violate the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law meant to ensure transparency in how agencies cre...

Seeks ban on use of name it owns

A historic Black church in Washington, D.C., awarded rights to the name and logo of the right-wing extremist group Proud Boys is suing the Hudson Valley chapter and its president, a former Beacon resident.

In a federal lawsuit filed Aug. 4, the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church accuses the Hudson Valley Proud Boys and Will Pepe of "unlawful and ongoing infringement" of its right to control use of the organization's name. Pepe is one of over 1,000 people found guilty of invading the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and pardoned in January by President Donald Trump.

A federal judge awarded those rights to the church in February when the Proud Boys ignored a $2.8 million judgment over a December 2020 attack on the church while hundreds of its members rallied in the city in support of Trump and his unsubstantiated claims that he won the 2020 presidential election.

Some Proud Boys, roving the city during a "night march," jumped over Metropolitan's iron fence to tear down and destroy its Black Lives Matter sign.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, Proud Boys members "embrace misogynistic, anti-immigrant, Islamophobic and anti-LGBTQ+ ideologies, among other forms of hate, including antisemitism and white supremacy."

Despite the February order, which prohibits the Proud Boys from "selling, transferring, disposing of or licensing" the name without the church's permission, Metropolitan AME says the Hudson Valley chapter continues to use the name on websites it and other New York chapters created, and on clothing, hats and other merchandise sold online.

Metropolitan said Pepe has not responded to a cease-and-desist letter sent in June to a Long Island address, as well as requests that he provide information on the chapter's use of the name and the amount of revenues from members' dues and merchandise sales. Pepe, who did not respond to requests for comment made through the New York Proud Boys' website, lived in Dutchess County until June 2025, according to court documents.

The church said it wants to "evolve" the Proud Boys name to become "associated with the church's mission of love and humanity, rather than white supremacy, hatred and violence." In February, it introduced two limited-edition T-shirts replicating the logo with the slogans "Stay Proud, Black Lives Matter" and "Stay Black, Black Lives Matter."

"It is justice. It is karmic," the Rev. William H. Lamar IV, the church's pastor, told The Washington Post in February. "It is our victory in a long line of victories."

Metropolitan AME was one of two Black churches in D.C. whose Black Lives Matter signs were destroyed on Dec. 12, 2020, by Proud Boys in support of Trump's challenge to the election results. Weeks later, on Jan.6, 2021, protesters broke into and ransacked the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden's win.

Police arrested Pepe six days later, accusing him, as president of the Hudson Valley chapter, of coordinating with other Proud Boys by radio and removing a police barricade. A federal judge found Pepe, who was fired from his job with Metro-North in Brewster, guilty in a bench trial on Oct. 23, 2024, of a felony (obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder) and four misdemeanors.

He was scheduled for sentencing on March 21 but, just hours after his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump issued "full, complete and unconditional" pardons to more than 1,500 men and women charged with participating in the attack on the Capitol.

Declaring his inauguration "liberation day," Trump also commuted the sentences of 14 people associated with the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers and convicted of seditious conspiracy for mounting an organized, military-like assault. Because they did not receive pardons, they will continue to face restrictions such as a ban on voting and owning firearms.

Metropolitan AME is chasing the Proud Boys' money. The church initially sued Proud Boys International on Jan. 4, 2021 - two days before the Cap...

State increases renewables projection, finalizes all-electric law

Two months after declaring its intention to build a nuclear plant to provide at least 1 gigawatt of power, the New York Power Authority has another ambitious initiative.

The draft of the agency's updated strategic plan calls for wind, solar and battery storage projects to provide 7 gigawatts - enough to power between 5 million and 7 million homes - built by the NYPA or private developers. The plan is online at bit.ly/NYPA2025 and the authority will hold virtual public hearings on Tuesday (Aug. 19) and Wednesday (Aug. 20). See nypa.gov/public-hearings to register.

Although none of the proposed projects are in Dutchess or Putnam counties, the number of renewable energy projects is more than double that in the NYPA's strategic plan released just eight months ago. NYPA credits the boom to funding from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included subsidies and incentives for renewable energy projects.

"The last few years have seen a massive growth, not only in the wind and solar that we're adding to our system, but our ability to manufacture and train so that we have a workforce and a system that is ready to meet growing demand," said Amanda Levin, director of policy analysis for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

In March, NYPA announced that it would be taking ownership of a solar energy project outside of Glens Falls. A month later, NYPA and the City of Albany announced a plan to develop a solar project on a capped landfill. That project will also be the first to participate in an NYPA program in which power is sold to low- and moderate-income families at reduced rates.

But federal actions are threatening to delay the state's renewables boom. The budget signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4 ended the Inflation Reduction Act's incentives for renewables, except for batteries. A series of executive orders imposed additional restrictions on renewables, including penalties for importing materials from China, a leading manufacturer of renewable energy equipment. This month, the Department of the Interior announced plans to subject wind and solar projects, including some already approved, to "further review."

Due to the federal changes, Christopher Hutson, the NYPA's senior vice president of development, warned at a July 29 board meeting of the possibility that not all of the authority's renewable projects will come to fruition, although some "may progress on their own."

The IRA's tax credits for renewables won't end immediately; wind and solar projects that begin construction by July 2026 or begin service by Dec. 31, 2027, can still claim them. Hutson said the state could begin construction of some projects ahead of schedule to meet those deadlines. "Every developer in the country right now is seeking to rapidly procure equipment," he said. "It will be critical to move fast."

The NYPA announcement wasn't the only big step New York took last week toward its long-term climate goals. The 2023 All-Electric Buildings Act cleared a hurdle when the State Fire Prevention and Building Code Council approved required changes.

The law will take effect at the end of the year, making New York the first state to require that all new buildings be powered with electricity instead of oil and gas. Existing buildings are not required to switch, even if renovated, and certain buildings, such as restaurants and crematoriums, are exempt. The law also only applies to buildings up to seven stories high. (Taller buildings have until 2028.)

In 2023, Beacon passed a law banning fossil fuels in new construction projects, before the state law. About a third of New York state's greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings, according to a December report issued by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.

James Hartford, co-owner of River Architects in Cold Spring, doesn't expect the law to change much for his business. As the founder of the New York chapter of th...