For Immediate Release

November 23, 2020

United University Professions, which has made a strong push to increase renewable energy sources and reduce carbon emissions at the State University of New York, has endorsed House Resolution 763, the Energy Innovation & Carbon Dividend Act of 2019.

Frederick E. Kowal, Ph.D., the president of UUP—which represents 37,000 faculty and staff at SUNY’s four-year campuses and academic medical centers—said that H.R. 763 closely follows many of the issues that UUP addressed in its own clean energy plan and carbon-reduction plan, known as NY25.

NY25 also proposes increasing education in renewable energy technology and encouraging innovation in the development of energy-saving techniques in the SUNY system.

“UUP realizes that any plan to reduce carbon emissions will be most effective if it is part of a large-scale effort throughout the country,” Kowal said. “It’s important for individual states to take steps such as the ones proposed in our NY25 plan, but we all need to think on a national, and really global, scale in addressing the climate crisis. We see our endorsement of H.R. 763 as one crucial step toward that large-scale solution.”

H.R. 763 would impose a fee on the carbon content of fuels, including crude oil, natural gas, coal, or any other product derived from those fuels, that would be used in a way that allows greenhouse gases to be emitted into the atmosphere.

The resolution in support of H.R. 763 by UUP’s statewide Executive Board also directs the union to jointly issue resolutions in support of the bill with UUP’s statewide affiliate, NYSUT, and its national affiliate AFT. The UUP Upstate Medical University Chapter’s executive board has also passed a resolution in support of H.R. 763.

This action by UUP is just the latest in the union’s long effort to address the climate crisis. UUP is also a founding member of NY Renews, a coalition of more than 200 labor and environmental groups that is working to advance clean energy and carbon emission reduction in the state.