John Garay, MHET’s Bilingual Community Coordinator, was interviewed on Radio Kingston by Yolanda Knox and Katrina Houser to talk about Mid-Hudson Energy Transition’s programs and how community members can get involved.

The conversation is a great window into what our work looks like on the ground: not just policies and programs, but real people, real needs, and real pathways to making homes healthier, more affordable, and more energy efficient.

John talks about how MHET works with community members across the region, especially those who are too often left out of clean energy and energy efficiency programs. The interview explores how our programs are designed to meet people where they are (linguistically, culturally, and practically) and how trust, relationships, and accessibility are just as important as the technical side of energy work.

As our Bilingual Community Coordinator, John focuses on outreach, communication, and direct support for underrepresented communities, helping make sure the energy transition isn’t something that happens to people, but something they can actively participate in and benefit from.

This Rise Up Radio interview is a warm, practical, and grounding conversation about what energy justice looks like when it’s rooted in real lives and real neighborhoods.

Give the interview a listen and let it be a reminder that the energy transition is, at its core, a community project.

Throwback Thursday! At the end of 2023, Executive Director, Jasmine Graham, was a guest on Climate with Kiana, a podcast that explores climate solutions through a framework of joy and justice.

Climate with Kiana is all about something we deeply believe at MHET: that the path to a sustainable future isn’t just technical or policy-driven, it’s human. The show uplifts conversations with climate, energy, and sustainability leaders who are working toward solutions that are not only effective, but equitable, community-rooted, and life-affirming. It’s a space for curiosity, reflection, and honest conversation about how we get to a more just and joyful world.

In this episode, Jasmine and host Kiana dig into some of the big questions that sit at the heart of our work: What does energy justice really mean? What does energy democracy look like in practice? And what does a just transition require from our policies, our institutions, and ourselves?

They talk about the historical role policy has played in shaping our energy systems and how those systems have too often produced unequal and unjust outcomes. Jasmine shares perspective on why equitable energy solutions aren’t a “nice to have,” but a necessity if we’re serious about addressing the climate crisis in a way that actually improves people’s lives.

The conversation also traces Jasmine’s own journey working in clean energy in New York State, and the experiences that shaped their understanding of what’s possible when communities are centered in the transition. Along the way, Jasmine reflects on what continues to bring them inspiration, hope, and joy in this work because even in the face of enormous challenges, there are real, living examples of change happening right now.

It’s a thoughtful, grounded, and deeply human conversation about how we move from extractive systems toward ones built on care, participation, and shared power— exactly the kind of future we’re working toward at MHET every day.

We’re grateful to Climate with Kiana for creating space for these conversations and for uplifting the stories of people working toward just, sustainable, and joyful climate solutions.

Give the episode a listen and let it remind you that a better energy system isn’t just possible. We’re already building it.

Connor Cantrell | 11/20/2025

Climate change is here, it’s accelerating, and our goal now must be to mitigate the harm it is causing and will cause. This is becoming more difficult because the federal government is actively working against a green transition, let alone an equitable one. Without federal resources and protections, the energy transition will be driven by private interests, not the public good. In this grim context, the focus of the just energy transition we need must be local and grounded in the communities suffering most from climate chaos and fossil fuel pollution.  

The most vulnerable households in our communities are facing the heaviest burdens. If the energy transition is unmanaged, those who have enough resources to own a home, to install solar and geothermal, to buy batteries, to weatherize, to electrify, will do so, and they will save money doing it. These homes will be less reliant on the grid, while households who can’t afford these upgrades are left footing the bill for the grid as it decays. It’s a perfect example of how having less money makes basic needs more expensive. 

So we need a managed transition that doesn’t leave anyone behind. First, because of the love for our neighbors in our hearts, and second, because only a holistic approach can deliver comprehensive success. Have we transitioned away from fossil fuels if more than half of the population is still dependent on them? Of course not. The end of fossil fuel dependence needs to be complete. 

Decarbonizing needs to happen at scale. This is not cheap. And since we’re in an environment where funding is uncertain, we need to develop our own reliable sources of funding. In the absence of institutional support, we have to create our own institutions. In the wealth building biz these are called anchor institutions. 

In New York State, we’re operating in an energy ecosystem controlled by private, for profit utilities that maintain state sponsored monopolies over the electric and fossil fuel infrastructure. There are policy initiatives to change this status quo, but we also need to institute material changes with an urgency commensurate with the toll of climate collapse.

The big investor-owned utilities won’t orchestrate a managed transition themselves. In fact, they are fighting it: the incentives for for-profit institutions are to keep costs down and revenue up, and prevent competition. They’re not constructed to manage a just transition and we can’t expect them to operate against their interests.

But we can use the early stages of TEN development in New York as an opening to create our own institutions.

Each of New York’s seven largest investor-owned utilities is constructing a pilot thermal energy network (TEN) in accordance with the Utility Thermal Energy Network and Jobs Act (UTENJA). But their construction, development, and mass application are expensive, and, as noted, inconsistent with the structured profit incentives enjoyed by the utilities. We have not seen any indication that they plan to rapidly expand the adoption of thermal energy networks. Most of the utilities have not been enthusiastic about building TENS, because they replace the lucrative gas infrastructure with these renewable, highly resilient systems. That will cut into their bottom line, benefitting the customers instead of the corporations.

Utility scale thermal energy networks present an opportunity to decarbonize at scale. The Building Decarbonization Coalition provides a good explanation of  thermal energy networks (TENs) here. Very simply, TENs move heat around through underground water-filled pipes to warm and cool buildings. They get their heat from the earth’s constant, moderate temperature and from buildings in the system, even from sewage plants. They take excess heat from homes in summer to cool them, store it underground, and deliver it in winter.

So here’s the proposal: We create thermal energy networks that are structured to achieve a just transition. For example, the West Union, Iowa thermal energy network is municipally owned. Meaning that if the system isn’t working, the public has an opportunity to apply political pressure to an incumbent or challenger for local office. We can also construct TENs as independent non-profits, which also avoid the for-profit incentives of investor owned utilities.   

Either way, we have a local energy system that has a guaranteed revenue stream from distributing affordable heating and cooling and that revenue can be used to expand the system over time. TENs are modular, and they become more efficient as they increase in size and as they diversify the kinds of buildings they serve. Residential, commercial, and industrial heating and cooling needs all feed into the ability to balance the system. 

So, in an environment with dwindling opportunities for resources, we can start small and grow. We can expand and reach more members of our community and achieve ever increasing economies of scale. And, since these systems are local, the buildings that pay into the TEN for their heating and cooling needs avoid exporting that money out of their community. 

When we pay a Central Hudson utility bill in Kingston, it goes to a Canadian holding company. But if we were paying a local TEN, that money would go to local jobs and the further expansion of equitable decarbonization. Keeping money local and growing wealth locally. 

The best time to start a thermal energy network was twenty years ago. The next best time is today.

Ryann Busillo | 8/5/2025

In our previous blog, Connor summarized Final Termination Notices (FTNs) and Deferred Payment Agreements (DPAs). Here, I’ll dive deeper into terminations and their outcomes, exploring questions like: how often do terminations occur, and what happens before—and after—a shutoff?

Connor Cantrell | 6/25/2025

In May 2025, fifty thousand households served by Central Hudson were over sixty days in arrears. Specifically, 51,479 of the 274,264 total households had been in debt to the utility for more than two months, with an average balance of $2,661. Central Hudson publishes these numbers monthly.