Bedford Named #1 Clean Energy Community In New York

BEDFORD, NY — Go ahead and take a deep breath, Bedford. You've earned it.

The Town of Bedford has the distinction of being at the very top of the NYS Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) Leaderboard out of 460 communities participating statewide. Bedford 2030 said the achievement "reflects a strong community commitment to climate action between Bedford 2030, the Town of Bedford government and local community members."

Bedford's clean energy efforts, noted by the organization, include community campaigns for solar and electric vehicles, clean energy upgrades, clean heating and cooling adoption, clean energy codes and training, and Community Choice Aggregation for clean energy.

The NYSERDA Clean Energy Communities program helps local governments to implement clean energy actions and save on energy costs.

The Town of Bedford's NYSERDA Clean Energy Communities Scorecard can be viewed here.

As a result of being at the very top, Bedford earned a $130,000 grant through the Clean Energy program to be used for the Building Health and Performance Initiative, a solar-powered bus shelter, covered bike racks at the train stations and the gas lawn equipment buyback.

Other Hudson Valley communities in the top 20 positions of the Leaderboard include the Village of Hastings-on-Hudson, the Village of Croton-on-Hudson, the Town of North Salem, the Town of New Castle, the City of Beacon, the City of Kingston, the Town of Mamaroneck, the Village of Irvington, the City of New Rochelle, the Village of Dobbs Ferry, the Town of Ossining, the Town of Marbletown and the Village of Nyack.