During his State of the State address, Gov. David Paterson unveiled a sweeping new energy plan that would make New York a pioneer in renewable energy and help green its economy.

But many energy experts and elected officials wonder if the state will ever see the results of Paterson’s vision.

“I think these are good objectives and it’s important for the future of the state,” said Steve Cohen, executive director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. “But what you don’t see is enough detail to convince me this is anything but a symbolic statement.”

The plan calls for retooling factories to produce clean-energy technologies, promoting energy efficiency for buildings and companies, and generating more renewable energy in state.

At the core of the governor’s plan is his “45 by 15” initiative, which would mandate that 30 percent of the state’s energy come from renewable sources and another 15 percent from efficiency gains by 2015.

Some energy experts expressed guarded confidence that such a goal could be reached.

“There’s an enormous amount of low-hanging fruit, particularly around energy efficiency,” said Cohen. “With insulation and better use of energy, it could really make a big dent.”

Others, like Pradeep Haldar, executive director of New Energy New York (NENY), a consortium of energy technology organizations, see the “45 by 15” target as an opportunity to promote a green energy economy in New York. But they are worried that creating a green energy industry in the state will be slow without a “Produced in New York” requirement.

“We are doing the right thing by going to clean energy resources,” he said. “But are we just shifting our supply from fossil fuels from the Middle East to buying clean energy technologies from China?”

The governor has already pledged nearly $300 million for large-scale renewable energy projects located in New York. But this may not be enough for a state that imports more than half of its energy, according to the State Energy Planning Board.

Assembly Member Gary Finch, a Cayuga Republican on the Energy Committee, said he had hoped to see more in the governor’s plan about the Marcellus Shale gas reserves, which gets a single reference in the plan. And the governor’s budget mentions only that staff will be added in two agencies overseeing drilling in the Marcellus Shale fields.

The gas reserves are believed sufficient to power the entire United States for two years, which Finch says will be an economic boon for the state.

“The state will be able to tax it, consumers will be able to use it, and it will be cheaper because there is so much of it,” he said.

But the plan remains very controversial downstate, with the Bloomberg administration opposing it for fear that the proposed method of drilling could pollute New York City’s water supply.

Other elements of the plan, or elements missing from it, have also served as rally points for debate. Several upstate legislators, including State Sen. George Maziarz, the new Republican chair of the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee, support Paterson’s plan for additional tax credits and jobs incentives to get companies into the clean energy business. But he expressed disappointment that the governor did not replace the unpopular Power for Jobs program, which provides cheap energy to companies that create jobs in New York.

Proponents of a long-term replacement want an explicit commitment to creating manufacturing, technology and green energy jobs.

Meanwhile, Assembly Energy Committee chair Kevin Cahill said private financing will be particularly important in this tough budget season for energy programs, like with the recently enacted Green Jobs initiative.

And even if this energy plan, one of the most ambitious in the nation, does survive financially, it may still die politically.

“This is an election year,” said Maziarz. “Come January 1 of 2011, we may have a governor with a whole new set of goals.”