New York regulators have developed a draft of the state’s next energy plan and a public hearing process has begun. The Energy Law requires key state agencies to develop a plan to assess the state’s energy needs, energy supplies, climate impacts, and related issues and plan for at least the next decade. Not surprisingly, the draft energy plan is controversial: For example, the plan reflects the Hochul Administration’s embrace of the state’s aging nuclear power plants.
In addition to giving New Yorkers a chance to weigh in on the draft plan, the public hearing process is an opportunity for opponents of the state’s Climate Law to rally the troops and urge a weakening of that landmark law.
What is the Climate Law?
In 2019, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Law) was signed into law. The Climate Law is among the most ambitious climate laws in the nation and requires New York to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by no less than 85 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels. On the road to the 2050 goal, the Climate Law requires that the state achieve interim goals:
· 70 percent renewable energy by 2030;
· 100 percent zero-emission electricity by 2040; and
· 40 percent reduction in statewide greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2030.
Those interim goals were designed to ensure that the state meets the overall goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.Where did that goal come from? It is based on the best climate science available.
The world’s climate experts are members of the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).The IPCC has been putting out regular reports on the growing threats caused by a warming planet. Its April 2022 report resulted in a clarion call from the report’s co-chair: “It’s now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F); without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible.” Seven months later, the U.N. Secretary General stated, “Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing. Global temperatures keep rising. And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible. We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator."
Three years later, if anything the situation is worse. Last year was the hottest on record and exceeded the 1.5°C (2.7°F) goal that the climate experts called for in 2022 and that was the basis of the worldwide climate agreement signed in Paris in 2016.
If anything, last year should have jolted policymakers into action. In Washington, the only actions undo recent progress and further accelerate the damage to the climate. Here in New York, the oil industry and its allies’ “affordability” campaign has been forcing state regulators onto their back foot.
Despite the attacks, it is quite clear that the rising costs in electricity rates have little to do with the Climate Law. It is true that New York’s residential electricity rates are high, however, relative to the nation’s. In 2018 – the year before the state Climate Law was signed – New York’s residential electricity rates were ranked the seventh-highest in the nation; today they are still ranked seventh highest. Still high to be sure, but the impact of the Climate Law’s passage didn’t make a meaningful difference.
Moreover, the amount of energy generated by wind and solar continues to be a very small percentage of the electricity generated in the state (around 10%).How could such a small percentage substantially drive increases in electricity costs? It can’t.
Yet that hasn’t stopped opponents of the Climate Law from stating otherwise. Opponents are arguing that it is the Climate Law that is making New York’s electricity rates too high, all in an effort to block – or at least slow down – action in New York. This campaign is just the latest in the decades-long efforts by the fossil fuel industry and its allies to block climate protection policies.
In terms of “affordability,” maintaining the state’s reliance on fossil fuels – or even expanding it – will make the costs of energy much worse. After the Climate Law was passed the state convened a panel of “stakeholders” to develop a detailed blueprint to meet the law’s milestone goals. Among its findings was that unless measures were taken, New Yorkers faced a considerablefinancial risk from climate-change impacts. The blueprint estimated “the cost of inaction in New York State exceed[s] the cost of action by more than $115 billion.”
There are legitimate criticisms of New York’s efforts to implement the Climate Law, mainly its too slow execution efforts and its growing ratepayer subsidies of nuclear power – both old plants and new ones – that will costs tens of billions of dollars.
But the Climate Law is not a problem. Global warming from the burning of fossil fuels and the resulting – and worsening – climate disaster is the problem. New York needs to take an even more aggressive approach to advancing renewable forms of power.
It is only through aggressive climate action that New York can show the nation and the world how to avert an even more catastrophic environmental disaster. Change is hard, but when it comes to our energy policies, the status quo is literally unsustainable.
Blair Horner is senior policy advisor with the New York Public Interest Research Group.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.
