New York ahead of the game on cutting emissions
With a head start, a wider scope and its own more-rigorous goals, New York won’t have much extra work to do to meet the president’s mandated cut in carbon emissions from power plants.
The state is on track to meet the mandate — which calls for a 32 percent nationwide cut — more than a decade before the federal Clean Power Plan’s 2030 deadline, boosted in large part by its own, more-aggressive goals laid out in an update to the New York State Energy Plan this year.
In late June, the state committed to three major energy benchmarks for the next 15 years: reducing all greenhouse-gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels, decreasing energy consumption in buildings by 23 percent from 2012 levels, and making sure half the state’s energy is produced from renewable sources.
“I don’t think New York is going to have to do too much more as it relates to the power sector than what they’re already committing to do, aside from some minor regulation changes,” said Peter Iwanowicz, executive director of Environmental Advocates of New York, an Albany-based advocacy group. “It’s not going to be a heavy lift.”
While environmental groups and federal officials have lauded New York for being ahead of most other states, some say there’s more work to be done and key decisions to be made, particularly when it comes to the future of aging, fossil-fuel-based power plants and the massive Indian Point nuclear facility in Buchanan.
President Barack Obama’s plan, carried out in a set of regulations finalized last week, calls for the nationwide reduction in carbon emissions from 2005 levels.
Under the federal plan, New York will have to cut back to 918 lbs. of carbon per net megawatt hour (from 1,140 lbs.) over the next 15 years. As it stands, the state is already projected to be well below that figure a decade earlier — to 902 by 2020, according to the EPA.
Going beyond
John Rhodes, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research Development Authority, said the state’s energy plan “goes beyond” the focus of the federal Clean Power Plan.
While the federal plan hones in on power plants, the state’s energy plan also looks at other sectors — such as heating buildings and the transportation industry — to boost energy efficiency.
“The state’s goals in the state energy plan, I think they are nation-leading in terms of clean energy and achieving affordability and resilience for all New Yorkers,” said Rhodes, who was appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “We expect to exceed the Clean Power Plan with the agenda that we’re putting forward in this state.”
New York’s energy plan is the culmination of a number of the state’s power-related initiatives, including efforts to improve the state’s much-maligned transmission lines and shift from the mega-power-plants that have been a hallmark of the state’s power grid.
The goals set in this year’s plan (the state is required to update it every five years) are meant to put the state closer to its ultimate benchmark set in 2009: an 80 percent cut to 1990 greenhouse-gas-emission levels by 2050.
The major piece of New York’s greenhouse-gas-cutting repertoire has been the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, which launched seven years ago.
New York is the largest state in the nine-state cooperative effort, which caps each state’s annual carbon emissions and requires power plants to purchase pollution allowances at auction, with the money supposed to be reserved for clean-energy projects in each state.
Power plants in New York have reduced their carbon emissions by 40 percent over the past decade, said Gavin Donohue, executive director of the Independent Power Producers of New York, a trade group, but other greenhouse-gas-emitting industries haven’t gotten enough attention from the state or federal governments.
“We do feel like we’re a picked-on sector at times,” Donohue said. “Other manufacturing sectors, transportation sectors, have been ignored. If you’re serious about reducing CO2, the manufacturing and transportation sectors are key.”
Nuclear question
As the state and federal government look to cut emissions, there’s also the looming question of Indian Point, which supplies a large portion of power to New York City and its suburbs and is seeking a new license from the federal government.
Nuclear plants don’t emit greenhouse gasses like coal plants, but Cuomo and various advocacy groups have called for Indian Point’s closure, citing the risk of having the nuclear plant within densely populated surroundings and a nearby fault line.
Patricia Kakridas, a spokeswoman for Indian Point owner Entergy Corp., said the state can’t “reasonably meet” its greenhouse-gas goals if the plant is shut down. One of the reactor’s licenses expired in 2013 and the other is set to expire this year, though it can continue to operate until the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission decides on its application for new licenses.
“Like other programs that aim to lower air emissions from electric generation, including those put forward by New York State, the Clean Power Plan bolsters the need for certainty regarding the continued operation of Indian Point, as well as the continued viability of nuclear energy nationwide,” Kakridas said in a statement.
Renewable power
Judith Enck, regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said the federal and state energy plans are “complementary,” but the state can always do more to shift toward renewable energy.
“I think New York is in a pretty good spot because they have made investments in renewables, but there’s certainly more to do, especially recognizing the incredible challenge that we face with the warming planet,” she said.
About 20 percent of the state’s capacity for electric generation is from renewable sources, according to the state Independent System Operator, which oversees New York’s power grid. About 75 percent of that comes from hydropower sources, like the state’s massive hydro-electric plant near Niagara Falls
Rhodes pointed to a number of state initiatives aimed at boosting renewables, including the NY-Sun initiative, in which the state has committed $1 billion to boost solar-energy capacity in New York. And solar capacity has tripled in the state between 2011 and 2014, according to Cuomo’s office, though it still accounts for less than 1 percent of the state’s total electric capacity.
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