by Bob Ciesielski, Energy Committee Co-Chair
This summer, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) issued a report on the progress of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). The CLCPA requires 70% of the State’s electricity to be provided from renewable sources such as wind, solar, and hydropower by 2030, and a zero-emissions electric sector by 2040. The report was a cautionary one, with the opinion that the 70% by 2030 renewable goal would probably not be reached but that it was more likely that the goal would be achieved by 2033. Immediately, the Business Council and other fossil fuel interest supporters called for a rewrite of the CLCPA and called for a revisit of their customary false energy solutions such as mixing expensive “green” hydrogen and massive amounts of renewable natural gas (RNG) with fracked gas to maintain the pipeline system that is offset by unproven carbon sequestration proposals, etc. So it was with some trepidation that the environmental movement viewed the convening of a “Future Energy Economy Summit” by Governor Hochul in Syracuse on September 4-5.
At the Summit the Governor and NYSERDA expressed continued strong support for the rapid build-out of wind and solar electricity generation, storage, and energy efficiency. Maintaining the fossil fuel industry was not discussed. However, much time was devoted to the discussion of nuclear power, including continued subsidies for existing plants and the acceptance of small modular fission reactors. Hydrogen was also addressed — not for the purpose of adding it to fracked gas pipelines, but rather to power the industrial manufacturing sector. Interestingly, both nuclear and hydrogen energy have potentially large revenue backing through the Federal government’s Inflation Reduction Act. Doreen Harris, President and CEO of NYSERDA, in fact acknowledged the funding available for nuclear. The Governor also emphasized support for unrestricted economic development, mentioning the large electricity needs of the cryptocurrency industry (opposed in NYS by the Atlantic Chapter) and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry, which is being questioned by a number of environmental groups for its growing massive energy usage. See “Dark Cloud” and “Consumed by Data,” Sierra Magazine, Fall 2024, pp. 66 -72).
Anticipating the Governor's support for nuclear power, a number of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, and central New York First Nations, organized a rally opposing the State’s potential continued financial support of nuclear. Some 153 organizations signed an opposition petition. Currently, older nuclear power plants are being subsidized to the tune of approximately $1 billion per year by NYS through 2029, with the anticipation that by 2030 the goal of 70% renewable electricity would be achieved and the subsidy discontinued. The pursuit of small, modular nuclear power generation devices would be disastrous. These reactors would use the same fission process as all previous reactors, with the same needs for uranium mining and nuclear waste disposal. In many ways modular fission reactors pose more dangers than larger reactors. Their smaller size would require them to be placed throughout the state in numerous locations, with their self-contained units risking serious nuclear disasters. The cost of nuclear electricity would be many times that of renewables. It would also be impossible to ramp up their installation to halt climate change before it is too late.
In this dynamic situation, NYSERDA called for public comments by the end of September to aid in preparation of their first biennial review of the CLCPA. At the Summit, NYSERDA released a Draft Blueprint for Consideration of Advanced Nuclear Technologies, with comments due in early October. Immediately after the Summit, the State Energy Planning Board also announced that it would be preparing a new Energy Plan with public comments due by November 25, 2024. The release of a new Energy Plan, which has not taken place for a number of years, is a cause of some concern. The CLCPA called for a review of NYS’s energy landscape by the Climate Action Council (CAC). In December 2022, after two years of preparation, the CAC finalized and released its report and recommendations for specific legislative and regulatory actions. The CAC support strongly recommended the electrification, to the maximum extent possible, of NYS’s energy system as the best and most economical way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Many thought that this was the final energy plan through 2030. The Sierra Club will be making public comments in all three of the above proceedings with an emphasis on fully supporting the inclusion of the findings of the Climate Action Council’s 2022 Scoping Plan and recommendations by the State.
NYSERDA’s summer report should act as a cautionary tale to the State that we have six years to achieve our goal of producing 70% of New York state's electricity from renewable sources. Less than two weeks after the Governor’s Syracuse Summit, the Alliance for Clean Energy New York (ACE NY) held its annual conference in Albany. Doreen Harris of NYSERDA and representatives of the Governor told conference attendees that they will continue to vigorously work to achieve the 2030 renewable energy and greenhouse gas emission reduction goals of the CLCPA. The development of renewables has suffered several road bumps since the CLCPA was made law in 2019, including the COVID pandemic, worldwide inflation, and supply chain issues. The failure of the Public Service Commission to adopt inflation adjustments for renewable energy projects at the end of 2023 exacerbated these problems and resulted in the cancellation of a number of facilities. However, the State has continued to streamline its processes for approving renewable and storage construction, including issuing its 5th offshore wind solicitation in September of this year, which resulted in proposals for 6.8 gigawatts of offshore wind power from 4 developers.
The Sierra Club, as well as ACE NY, believe that the goal of 70% renewables by 2030 is still achievable and that we do have enough time to remove the hurdles delaying the deployment of renewable energy projects. Moreover, the CLCPA climate goals were not arbitrary and invented by NYS as claimed by the fossil fuel industry. These goals are a climate necessity. NYS developed the climate law to be consistent with the recommendations and consensus of global climate change scientists and experts. We need to double down on overcoming challenges and achieving New York’s renewable energy goals for 2030.