The currently un-green Executive Mansion in Albany.Photo: AP
In a one-home version of PlaNYC 2030, the state’s first lady, Silda Wall Spitzer, is turning the governor’s mansion fashionably green. The 39-room Queen Anne was built in 1875, and, as you might imagine, it isn’t a model of energy efficiency. The planned $650,000 renovation — the state will pick up a third of that, just as it would if you were to green up your mansion — actually doesn’t sound all that drastic: a few solar panels, a switch to electric mowers and hybrid vehicles throughout the property (no word on what will power the steamroller), and, um, new lightbulbs. The goals are similarly modest: halving the greenhouse-gas emissions from the mansion and reducing its yearly electric bill, which the AP places at $86,000, to a mere $60,000. (The nation’s most currently notorious utility bill, Al Gore’s, is $30,000.) We like the Spitzers’ realism, but one is left wishing for something a little more inspirational. Shouldn’t a truly green governor, like, grow his own wheat and make electricity? We know, we know: Shelly Silver and Joe Bruno must be tying his hands.
Governor’s Mansion To Become Greenhouse Model [AP via amNY]
