Solar panels line an apartment building roof in the Queens borough of New York City. | Mark Lennihan/AP Photo
ALBANY — New York’s ambitious new climate law faces headwinds from the coronavirus pandemic and is mired in the bureaucracy of implementation as it turns one year old.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act on July 18 last year in a celebratory ceremony with former Vice President Al Gore at his side, also announcing contracts for two major offshore wind projects. Those turbines, along with the major elements of the act, are years away from reality.
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The Cuomo administration insists "we remain on track to meet our ambitious targets,” spokesperson Jordan Levine said in a statement.
He listed achievements including passage of a new law to accelerate the siting of renewables, extension of subsidies for residential and community solar, increased ratepayer funding for energy efficiency, convening the Climate Action Council and a new incentive for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
But other pieces of the act have faced delays and advocates are raising concerns about the pace of action.
Electric sector goals
New York had planned to issue a new request for even more megawatts of offshore wind to support the CLCPA mandate of 9,000 megawatts by 2035 earlier this year but that’s been delayed amid concerns about the impact of the pandemic and the administration’s focus on that issue. A similar request for new onshore renewables has also been deferred.
“We understood the delay because the state didn’t want people out and about, developing projects, finalizing land deals, but now that New York state has reopened I think it would be appropriate to get those RFPs on the street so that we can keep making some progress,” said Anne Reynolds, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York.
The risks of continued delays are that developers won’t have contracts in hand in time to take advantage of federal tax credits expiring at the end of the year and that NYSERDA, the state's energy policy arm, will fall behind for next year’s schedule. The regular solicitations are a key signal for the industry, Reynolds said.
The state has laid out a potential road map to achieve 70 percent renewables by 2030, one of the key requirements of the law. The white paper filed by Department of Public Service and NYSERDA staff relies on additional subsidies for new renewables, plus a potential new mechanism to support clean electricity delivered directly to New York City.
The proposal, which is subject to public comment and action by the Public Service Commission, puts the state ahead of schedule on acting to ensure the electricity sector meets its CLCPA requirements. The law only requires action by the PSC by June 13, 2021.
However, the white paper does not address major questions about how the state will hit the emissions free electricity target for 2040. Multiple consultants have identified a gap for reliability without the use of either biogas or another form of long-term energy storage to balance periods of low renewable generation.
Climate Action Council
Intended by advocates for the climate law as a flagship entity to solicit a measure of independent expertise and public comment, the Climate Action Council has met only twice in the past year.
“The state team has had an enormous amount of unforeseen circumstances on its plate,” Reynolds said. “They should set a scheduled cadence of meetings once a month … to make sure we keep moving ahead. It’s understandable why there’s been delays but we have to recognize there are always going to be competing issues.”
The council has not yet approved members of the “advisory panels,” that will drive sector-by-sector proposals to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and evaluate cost-benefit information on various policies. Those panels will meet in secret and most industry groups and advocates have pressed their own candidates to get a seat at the table.
The deadline for the Climate Action Council to release a draft plan to achieve the state’s goals is January 1, 2022, but advocates are eager to see the advisory panels kick off.
Environmental justice elements
The coronavirus pandemic’s disparate impact on minority and low-income communities, and the increased health risks for those exposed to higher air pollution rates, has elevated even more the focus among environmentalists and policymakers on environmental justice.
The CLCPA set a baseline requirement for 35 percent of clean energy funds to be invested in environmental justice communities. The Cuomo administration last month appointed leading advocates to a Climate Justice Working Group required by the law that will set the criteria for defining those disadvantaged communities.
"Though the implementation of the CLCPA has gotten off to a slow start amidst the pandemic, our coalition is holding the Climate Action Council accountable to our ambitious climate targets,” said Priya Mulgaonkar a resiliency planner for the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance. “We are pleased that the appointments to the Climate Justice Working group have been named, but are eager to see representation from frontline communities of color on the other advisory committees as swiftly as possible.”
Cuomo administration officials have expressed a commitment to invest even more than the 35 percent to benefit disadvantaged communities and invited input in various venues on achieving that. However, advocates are raising concerns that the draft of the regulations to distribute money from the regional cap-and-trade program for power plant emissions doesn’t go far enough.
“There’s still a long, long way to go to see the CLCPA be implemented with its original intentions,” said Summer Sandoval, with the Sunset Park community group UPROSE.
Both UPROSE and the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance are members of the NY Renews coalition credited with relentlessly pushing the law that forms the basis of the CLCPA. The group is pressing for more scrutiny of how clean energy money is currently being spent to ensure the state meets its commitments. Members sent a letter on Thursday calling for a full audit of Covid-19 related and all agency clean energy spending.
State actions
The Cuomo administration has not announced the formation of the Environmental Justice Advisory Group, which also has seats for appointees from legislative leaders. That group is tasked with creating a model environmental justice policy by January 2021 to ensure community concerns are taken into account when agencies make permitting and other decisions.
The Department of Environmental Conservation is also working on regulations to place a value on carbon and codify the greenhouse gas emission limits and inventory. A public meeting on the carbon cost is expected on July 24. Draft regulations on the greenhouse gas limits will be issued for comment soon.
One major requirement of the CLCPA was that state agencies consider the new goals in all their decisions. The DEC cited the law in its denial of the controversial Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline, although the decision legally relied on water quality concerns. The focus on climate goals was seen as a major victory by advocates, but there remain questions about how the state will apply that provision of the law elsewhere.
“The renewal and building and constant investment in fossil fuel infrastructure doesn’t fit into the CLCPA goals,” Sandoval said.
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