BUDGET CLIMATE FLOP — POLITICO’s Marie J. French: New York is struggling to meet its climate goals. The state budget didn’t offer a helping hand. Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers failed to take major steps called for in the state’s climate plan in this year’s budget passed last week — dashing the best hope this year for action on thorny issues like the future of natural gas in New York. “It was bad for climate,” Sen. Liz Krueger, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said. “We have more work to do on climate.” The budget included no significant measures to address planet-warming emissions from buildings or transportation, the biggest sources of pollution in New York. Instead, there was a sales tax exemption for residential energy storage systems, a few million dollars to plant trees and marginal changes to speed up construction of transmission lines. CAP-AND-TRADE WOES — POLITICO’s Jordan Wolman, Marie J. French and Zi-Ann Lum: Leaders across the continent who have embraced aggressive climate policies are facing a political backlash as the programs drive up the cost of electricity, home heating and even ordinary goods. In New York, Washington, Pennsylvania and California — and even Canada — concerns about the costs of curbing greenhouse gas emissions are fueling voter revolts and prompting some liberals to scale back or reframe their own climate ambitions. … Gov. Kathy Hochul, amid growing pushback from the state’s business community, is considering neutering her nascent program in self-defense. She’s proposed a price cap so low that it wouldn’t spur enough reductions to ensure New York hits its 2030 emissions target of 40 percent below 1990 levels. “Cost is one of those things that ultimately could defeat the effort,” said former New York Department of Environmental Conservation head Basil Seggos, who stepped down earlier this month after a nearly 9-year tenure. “The governor ... wants to see a program that’s affordable.” FROM THE NOTEBOOK: Seggos had lots to say before he departed about the cap-and-invest program and the proposal on changing the climate law that got huge public backlash. Here are a few more highlights from that conversation last month (edited for length and clarity) ... You’re obviously following what’s happening in Washington that the ballot initiative and in California with some lawmakers raising concerns. Does that worry you in terms of the potential for a cap-and-trade, cap-and-invest program to be successful here in New York? Seggos: That’s part of it, to look at the experiences of other states and ultimately do something here that will be successful and also can be replicated in other states. We’re not looking to change the way that Washington, California, Quebec, and other states have their own programs. But can we build something here that successfully generates enough revenue to get us going and will give other states comfort in joining us? I think that will happen over time We were comfortable because of the climate law, because of the [Climate Action Council] recommendations, because of this governor beginning a process here that was courageous. Do you think when you talk about other states joining, are you thinking of linking with California, Oregon, Quebec? Or are you thinking of states in the region joining? Seggos: We’ve talked to a lot of all the big states. There may be a situation where there are non-Western states that want to launch their programs. Look at some of the dialogue coming out of Maryland, for example. There could be synergies between what we create here and what some of these states are talking about doing as well. We develop these things at the regional level, that end up carrying the country forward a little bit. I think that’s not why we’re doing this, but I think that will be a benefit of creating programs that are linkable and creating successful programs. One of the reasons the state is doing this is to comply with the climate law. But the price ceilings that have been proposed would fall short of the goals. Seggos: This is going to be one tool that we use. It’s not going to be the only tool. It’ll be a big one, right? I as a New Yorker want to see a program develop that will succeed and that will not fracture the state’s interests. There are people that are concerned about jobs and the economy. Ultimately we want to make sure that we have something that can build success over time and demonstrate that some of the misinformation that’s tossed around when it comes to programs like this ultimately is addressed, and it falls by the wayside. SOLAR V. FARMS — The Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition lost its challenge to a New Jersey Board of Public Utilities plan about how to limit solar projects on farmland, a major issue nationally but particularly in the Garden State. The BPU thought — correctly in the court’s view — that a law enabling the state’s Competitive Solar Incentive program prevents more than 5 percent of any county’s farmland from being covered by solar projects. MAREC, which represents energy developers, challenged the board’s interpretation and said the 5 percent county limit only applied if a related statewide 2.5 percent limit was already reached — in other words, more than 5 percent of a county’s farmland could be covered with solar arrays if less than 2.5 percent of all state farmland was not. The BPU won after the Superior Court’s appellate division sided with the board. “A contrary interpretation would undermine the act’s intent to limit the adverse effects of solar projects on our state’s natural resources,” the court found in a ruling issued on Tuesday. The BPU did not comment publicly on its win. MAREC said the “unfortunate decision means that an overlapping state and county cap on solar development will inhibit larger projects which, by their economy of scale, deliver the lowest cost electricity. This decision will also make it more difficult to meet the state’s renewable energy and Energy Master Plan goals.” — Ry Rivard NEW RENEWABLE ADVOCATE: The Alliance for Clean Energy New York, a leading voice for renewable energy developers in the state, has selected a longtime booster of the industry as its new leader. Marguerite Wells will head up the organization as executive director, the group announced. “Her experience and expertise in the field of large-scale renewables in New York state is extensive,” said Keith Silliman, chair of the board of directors for ACE NY and director of regulatory compliance at Cypress Creek Renewables. “She will help guide us forward as we push to get shovels in the ground in order to meet our climate goals.” Wells got her start in the renewables business in the state developing a small community wind project outside Ithaca that would have sold the power to Cornell University. Local opposition and delays stymied the project. Wells went on to work for Invenergy after the project fell apart in 2016. Most recently she led Invenergy’s New York development efforts, overseeing a 2-gigawatt pipeline of projects, according to ACE. She also co-owns a small solar grazing business. Wells starts April 30. — Marie J. French OFFSHORE WIND MOVES — POLITICO’s Marie J. French: New York is expediting the timeline to secure contracts with offshore wind developers after failing to finalize any agreements from an earlier round. NYSERDA is also moving forward with a planned competitive process to bolster the offshore wind supply chain in the state with $200 million in previously allocated funds. The actions announced Tuesday are yet another attempt by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration to keep the state on track to meet its climate goals and to make New York a major economic hub for the nascent industry in the U.S. after three key projects were scrapped last week, POLITICO first reported. The faster timeline — with a request for proposals expected this summer for new offshore wind projects — could also help secure more offshore wind to support the state’s 9 gigawatt target by 2035. But the projects won’t be required to be online in time to support the state’s 70 percent renewable energy by 2030 goal. SALES TAX FOR TRANSIT? — The New Jersey Business and Industry Association is, unsurprisingly, against Gov. Phil Murphy’s plan to increase the state’s corporate business tax to fill a looming budget hole at New Jersey Transit. But the group has an alternative: money from the state’s sales tax. Murphy’s administration already considered increasing the sales tax as a way to boost NJ Transit. The industry group’s idea is slightly different – just devote new revenue from the sales tax to the transit agency, since sales tax revenue increases with inflation. “If you just dedicated the future funding stream of the increase in sales tax, you could find that you would probably have a good revenue source from there,” the industry group’s CEO, Michele Siekerka, told reporters during a Tuesday press conference. She said that would not fully close the gap facing NJ Transit, at least not at first. But she is not alone in talking about the sales tax recently as lawmakers seem lukewarm on increasing business taxes. During legislative budget hearings earlier this month, NJ Transit CEO Kevin Corbett heard from lawmakers skeptical that an increase in the business tax would work out this session. Corbett said his agency needs money to avoid service cuts and more fare hikes, but he is largely agnostic on where the money comes from. Several times during exchanges with lawmakers, Corbett said sales taxes are used to fund transit systems in other places. — Ry Rivard OFFSHORE WIND NEXT STEPS: There might be one or two offshore wind projects that can still get built by 2030, said NYSERDA president and CEO Doreen Harris, speaking ahead of the Cohoes floating solar event. After the lack of awards announced last week, the state currently doesn’t have any active contracts for offshore wind projects, although two early ones are in negotiations after winning higher prices. Harris declined to provide details on the next steps for offshore wind after last week’s news, promising more information “soon.” She’s scheduled to speak on Wednesday at an offshore wind conference in New Orleans. Harris also said an announcement of large-scale land based renewables would be made on schedule “later this month.” “We knew GE was contemplating this shift, but the actual decision took a couple of months,” Harris said of the negotiations with developers from October until the state called it quits on Friday. Asked whether relying so heavily on GE Vernova was a mistake, Harris said similar questions were raised when New York had so many contracts with one offshore wind developer — Equinor. Only one of those contracted projects is still moving forward after a competitive re-bidding held quickly following the state’s decision to rebuff Equinor’s request for higher prices. “Is that concentration a good thing or a bad thing? On the one hand concentration provides scale and it provides volume so these actions can occur,” Harris said. “I think about GE’s investment in the same manner — that it allowed GE to make the investments we were looking for,” she said. “The premise I think still holds and it will be a necessary element of any investment, which is achieving the scale necessary to keep that investment working for a long time.” Rep. Paul Tonko, a Democrat from the Albany area, said offshore wind has to move forward to support environmental efforts. “There will be I’m certain a new bidding process,” he said. “This is clean energy that will enable us to meet very lofty goals in the state and the nation.” Tonko said that GE Vernova was offering what they believed was their best product. — Marie J. French ONE WORD: PLASTICS — New Jersey’s Senate and Assembly environment committees held a joint hearing on plastic pollution Monday. Witnesses included former EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck, who now leads an anti-plastics group, and Rutgers University professor Phoebe Stapleton who laid out the ubiquity of plastics found in the water, the air, food and us. “These products and particles have been found everywhere scientists have looked,” she said, referring to micro and nano plastics. “If there is a location, product or tissue that has not yet been identified, it is likely that this product or tissue has not yet been examined.” Sen. Bob Smith, the chair of the Senate’s environment committee, called Stapleton’s testimony — which summarized a wide range of research, including her own — “very shocking news.” “A whole bunch of bills are being constructed,” Smith said. He said Assemblymember Jim Kennedy, chair of the Assembly’s environment committee, would take the lead on at least some of them. Among the bills to keep an eye out for: a plastic reduction bill and a bottle bill. — Ry Rivard SOLAR FOR ALL, EVEN THE RESERVOIRS: New York will get nearly $250 million to expand access to solar energy for low-income residents. NYSERDA got the grant — the largest for a single state — on Monday from the Environmental Protection Agency. “That’s going to help us on the low-income deployment side which is really good,” Harris said. NYSERDA had planned to apply for $400 million. Final agreements between NYSERDA and the federal government are expected by the summer, after which the authority will work on details of implementing the funding over five years. Some of the money will go to New York City to support a program aimed at providing solar to 5,000 households. Support for affordable housing is also planned. About half of the funding was expected to go toward single-family residential homes, according to NYSERDA staff’s presentation to the authority’s board last year. Harris on Monday — Earth Day — also highlighted progress on a municipally-owned floating solar array in Cohoes at a reservoir there. She was joined by Cohoes officials, interim Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Sean Mahar, Rep. Paul Tonko and Assemblymember John McDonald at the “groundbreaking” for the project that has been years in the making. The 3.2 megawatt solar project will eliminate the city’s $500,000 annual electricity costs, said Cohoes Mayor Bill Keeler. Officials touted the project — which will cost about $8 million and get more than $7.4 million in state, federal and utility support — as an example for other local governments across the state and the nation. “Sometimes the solutions you’re looking for are right next door,” McDonald said. — Marie J. French | 
