Progress Reports

December 2025 Progress Report

The Task Force and County staff worked diligently throughout 2025 to get a contract signed with DEC so we can begin working on our Climate Action Plan. Due to grant funding being completely exhausted, the Clean Energy Communities (CEC) program stopped accepting submissions for completed High Impact Actions on November 7, 2024. With the extra bandwidth provided by the lighter than usual workload in 2025, the County Task Force put additional emphasis on coordinating efforts with other Climate Smart Communities in the County. This report is one of the results of that change in focus and its purpose is to highlight those local efforts.

County Highlights:

• There are over 170 people working on Climate Smart projects in the county, most of whom are volunteers.

• Columbia County has earned over $1 million in no-match NYSERDA Clean Energy grants over the last three years.

• Combined, all the municipalities in the county have earned nearly $3.5 million in Clean Energy grants.

• The County has used its no-match grants to:

  • Partially fund Solar panels on the highway garage and DSS building

  • Fully fund 42 pieces of electric powered landscaping equipment

  • Fully fund 16 EV charging ports in Hudson and Greenport

  • Fully fund the purchase 5 new Battery Electric Vehicles

  • Fully fund the installation of heat pumps in the courtroom at the County Courthouse

• We still have $412,500 to make energy upgrades at 401 State Street

• The 5 EVs purchased by the county have cut fuel costs for the vehicles replaced by 31% and reduced GHG emissions by more than 50%

Local Task Force Highlights:

• 11 municipalities - Installed EV charging stations

• 1 DC Fast Charger installed in Ghent, 1 DC fast charger planed for Hillsdale

• 2 municipalities - Purchased an EV

• 6 municipalities - Performed Building Energy Audits

• 10 municipalities - Installed heat pumps at town hall or highway garage

• 10 municipalities - Installed Solar Panels at a town hall, highway garage, or other municipal building

• 13 municipalities - Performed LED lighting replacement in buildings or streetlights

• 8 municipalities - Purchased Electric Landscaping Equipment

Of the 120 Priority Actions listed on the Climate Smart Communities website, 70% of them have been completed by at least one municipality in the county.

February 2025 Progress Report

This report summarizes the activities of the County Task Force since its inception in 2020, and the actions completed since the first roadmap was developed in 2022.

We believe this Progress Report fulfills the requirements of PE10 - Annual Progress Report. This, and subsequent  reports, should result in 4 additional CSC Action Points when it comes time to recertify.