New York's Final Climate Action Council Scoping Plan Has No Room for False Solutions

NEW YORK – On September 29, the Climate Action Council’s Gas System Transition Subgroup gave a report out to the full Council and the public. 

In the report-out, they highlighted recommendations such as the importance of further defining energy affordability and prioritizing support for electrification and energy efficiency in disadvantaged communities, and increased transparency in utility reporting on GHG emission reports and forecasts. Despite these heartening updates on the projected progress of New York State in transitioning away from a fossil-fuel combustion system, the recommendations overall fell short of meeting the mandate to decrease, not extend, our reliance on increasingly obsolete gas infrastructure.

Elements of the proposed pathways that rely on unproven and regressive technologies potentially present a major obstacle that could impact the state’s ability to meet climate change goals. The inclusion of hydrogen and bio-methane or “renewable natural gas” leaves these options on the table for the fossil fuel industry and their beneficiaries to use in the name of “decarbonizing buildings” while citing the Scoping Plan to validate that these technologies are solutions to reducing GHG emissions. These fuels are not scalable or efficient, and can even increase pollutants like NOx compared to natural gas.

Based on this discussion, it does not seem that the sub-group is prepared to implement the goals of the CLCPA when it comes to fully committing to zero-emission solutions for decarbonizing buildings like air and ground source heat pumps, thermal energy networks and energy efficiency, and is instead continuing to hold the door open for technologies like RNG, hydrogen, and blending of these alternative fuels with fracked gas. These alternatives to electrification have been shown in studies, reports, and analyses to be infeasible, restricted in supply, harmful to health and climate, and expensive as compared to all-electric pathways, and could impact the state’s ability to meet climate change goals.

We hope this is not a harbinger of what the final scoping plan will look like in its recommendations for tackling New York’s most significant source of climate pollution: buildings. 

We understand that none of the members of this group are elected officials, but it's very important that those who appointed the Climate Action Council members, such as Governor Hochul, Speaker Heastie, and Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, make their voices heard. Leadership must ensure a final scoping plan that will save New Yorkers money by avoiding increasingly expensive investments in a soon-to-be obsolete gas pipeline system, and prioritize health, safety, reliable and scalable solutions, and pollution reductions in buildings aligned with the mandates of the CLCPA. It would be a failure to continue to hold the door open for utility-driven proposals that rely on renewable natural gas and hydrogen fuels to continue the expansion and maintenance of utility profits, and would undermine feasibility, affordability, and the spirit of the CLCPA. 

"Zero emissions mean zero emissions. The CLCPA lays out a strong and viable pathway for renewable energy and storage to replace fossil fuel infrastructure and we must start acting now,” said Eddie Bautista, Executive Director, NYC-Environmental Justice Alliance. “Proposals to achieve the mandates of our landmark climate act that rely on unproven technologies that cause disproportionate harm to disadvantaged communities, including combustion of cost-prohibitive hydrogen fuels that emit toxic levels of NOx, must be taken out of consideration as the Climate Action Council finalizes the Scoping Plan" 

“The CLCPA must be implemented without reliance on false solutions that have repeatedly been proven more expensive and dangerous than an all-electric future,” said Allison Considine, NY Campaign Representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. “Inclusion of RNG, hydrogen, or other alternative fuel blends in the final scoping plan for residential and commercial buildings will impede New York's ability to reach its climate goals and further subject affected communities to health risks posed by fuel combustion. That is not the CLCPA’s mandate and cannot be a part of our roadmap to decarbonization.” 

NYPIRG's Environmental Policy Director Anne Rabe said: "NYPIRG has consistently urged the state and the Climate Action Council to 'go further, faster' on our climate goals and to avoid the death of a thousand cuts by approving things that undermine that focus.  The CAC and state policymakers must keep their eyes on the ball: Getting off of fossil fuels.  A focus on hydrogen, renewable natural gas and related energy sources undermines the necessary rush to carbon neutrality."

Environmental Advocates NY’s Director of Climate Policy Conor Bambrick said: ““The term ‘zero emissions’ is non-negotiable. These words are baked into the state’s climate law for a reason. For New York to reach its climate goals, which will ultimately protect New Yorkers – especially residents of disadvantaged and frontline communities – from preventable diseases directly linked to air pollution, we must transition off the combustion fuels, this includes fossil fuels, biofuels, and hydrogen. The sooner we switch to renewable energy sources, the sooner lives will be saved. In-short, we need to stop burning things.”

NY-GEO Executive Director Christine Hoffer said: New York needs to move full speed ahead to eliminate greenhouse gases from our state’s building sector – its largest source of emissions. We should not be investing in gas infrastructure to accommodate limited and very expensive resources like hydrogen and renewable natural gas to heat buildings. It’s taking ratepayers down a rabbit hole and making it harder to reach our climate goals. The hurricane destruction recently visited on Florida and Puerto Rico should be ample warning that we’ve got no time to waste and need to go with proven, market-ready solutions.

"We must commit to full electrification. The false solutions posed here are distractions to maintain the bottom-line of fossil fuel industry executives,” said Ryan Madden, Sustainability Organizer with the Long Island Progressive Coalition. “It has been shown time and time again that these alternative fuels raise costs, pose insurmountable logistical challenges, increase harmful local pollution, and pose unacceptable safety risks. The results of the recent Brentwood hydrogen blending demonstration confirms that combusting hydrogen in gas plants harms overburdened communities. The demonstration achieved only marginal reductions in CO2 while increasing NOx emissions and consuming more water—that’s a terrible outcome for people and the planet."

“New York’s current gas systems are aging and prone to leaks. Adding hydrogen, a more explosive gas, into this system is unnecessarily risky, expensive, and a diversion of resources from true building energy efficiency and decarbonization with heat pumps. Heat pumps are safer, healthier, cleaner, and more efficient. Our state's climate plan must be clear that hydrogen has no place in home heating,” said Lindsay Speer, Director of Community Programs at Alliance for a Green Economy.