DECARBONIZING THE STATE COMPLEX: Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration is moving forward with a plan to reduce on-site emissions at the sprawling seat of state government by replacing fossil fuel equipment with electric alternatives. The $100 million project will reduce emissions from the Empire State Plaza complex by 20 percent, according to a report commissioned by the New York Power Authority on behalf of the Office of General Services. The money is from “existing capital resources,” according to the Division of Budget. Longer-term plans would move an energy-sucking laboratory for the Health Department elsewhere, do a deep retrofit of the buildings in the complex to reduce energy use and install a thermal network to nearly fully decarbonize the facility. The estimated price tag of all these as-yet-unfunded pieces, not including additional building improvements and remediations that could be triggered, is more than $1 billion. “It is not going to be easy. This is a working government complex with many employees that are here; there's a lot of movement that will have to take place in order to fully decarbonize,” said Jeanette Moy, commissioner of OGS. “Our goal will be to start to address these things that have been long neglected as well, that do have to be taken on regardless of decarbonization.” The Empire State Plaza complex hosts about 11,000 state workers each day. The massive seat of power in Albany began construction in the 1960s — displacing Black and immigrant residents. It’s now an aging structure that needs major updates to modernize its energy infrastructure and reduce emissions, according to the report. The report has been years in the making. NYPA and OGS in 2017 proposed a gas-powered microgrid to serve the Empire State Plaza with both heat and electricity. That involved building new, more efficient gas turbines at a facility in the low-income, predominantly Black community of Sheridan Hollow. Public outrage and opposition to the proposal — amplified by the historical environmental injustice of the plant that had once burned trash and spewed soot into the air — led Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration to abandon that proposal. Instead, in 2019 they put forth another alternative: build an off-site solar project, make some lighting upgrades and install an electric chiller to reduce gas usage by 18 percent. The solar project never happened, but the lighting upgrades were completed. The chiller was installed in 2022. Moy said the solar project was off the table due to infrastructure limitations. This decarbonization project would instead reduce local, on-site emissions rather than relying on injecting renewables into the grid elsewhere. “We have an opportunity to nearly eliminate or dramatically reduce the emissions that are local in downtown Albany,” Moy said. A state executive order signed in 2022 by Hochul calls for state agencies to rely on 100 percent renewable energy by 2030. Moy said OGS is working with NYPA, NYSERDA and the PSC on renewables including examining options like virtual power plants and additional solar installations on parking lots or open land. The “first phase” included in the decarbonization plan mainly relies on installing additional electric chillers — which provide cooling for the building — to reduce reliance on the steam chillers. An additional electric heat recovery chiller is also recommended along with an initial building renovation to utilize the low-temperature hot water that would be produced. NYPA will manage this project for OGS, Moy said, and plans to issue a request for proposals. The second phase mainly involves moving the laboratory at the base of the Corning Tower. That would reduce emissions by about 31 percent and is expected to be done by 2031. Advocates who have been pushing to decarbonize the Empire State Plaza for years had some mixed reactions. While praising the initial investment, they also called for swifter action for the thermal network and other emissions reduction measures. Local residents have also opposed the installation of new backup emergency generators at the Sheridan Avenue plant, although state officials have said they’ll be more efficient and quieter than the older ones. Those were also installed in 2022, according to the report. The Empire State Plaza complex is the second-largest state campus by emissions. NYPA is also developing a decarbonization plan with a thermal network for the 15 highest emitting state buildings, as required in state law, and that will delve deeper into the options for a thermal network. The cost estimated in this report is about $150 million. Because the steam generated by a thermal network would be at a lower temperature than that generated by the gas boilers, extensive changes to the heating system would be needed, according to the report. Moy said the focus for the third phase is on a geothermal option, involving digging wells somewhere in Albany, and/or capturing the heat from the wastewater treatment plant. The consultant’s report suggests also evaluating a third technically feasible option of utilizing waste heat from the Empire Generating gas power plant in Rensselaer. But Moy said that’s not a renewable resource and is also farther away than the other two. “It is both a gas power plant and it is also crossing the Hudson,” she said. “It is not off the table, but our focus is really the proximity and opportunity around geothermal and that opportunity around the wastewater treatment site.” — Marie J. French DECONGESTANTS — City Comptroller Brad Lander unveiled a pair of lawsuits Thursday aimed at New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 11th-hour decision to nix congestion pricing. Flanked by several plaintiffs — The City Club of New York, the Riders Alliance and the Sierra Club — Lander argued at a press conference that the governor’s decision imperiled public transit upgrades intended to be funded with revenue from the toll plan. The comptroller is leading a coalition of transit, environmental and disability rights advocates who are livid at Hochul’s decision and is helping coordinate the pro bono attorneys who penned the legal salvos. The City Club of New York’s lawsuit, filed in state court, argues Hochul and state Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez are ignoring a 2019 law signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to create the tolling program. The environmental and transit advocates — Riders Alliance, Sierra Club and the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance who are all represented by Earthjustice — are challenging Hochul’s “about-face” on congestion pricing as disastrous for the environment. Their lawsuit, filed in state court, argues Hochul is flouting the state’s landmark greenhouse gas reduction plan, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The environmental groups also argue the failure to decrease traffic in Manhattan violates the 2021 “green amendment” approved by New York voters that created a constitutional right to clean air, clean water and “a healthful environment.” All told, these lawsuits throw the tolling issue back into the hands of judges, which is where it was before Hochul stepped in. — Joe Anuta and Ry Rivard BPU TELLS COLLEGE TO PAY $2M PENALTY — The College of New Jersey must pay a $2.3 million penalty for using gas when it was not supposed to, the state Board of Public Utilities ordered last week. The 7,000-student college in Mercer County buys gas at a reduced rate from PSE&G but agrees to interruptions of service in exchange for that lower price. During a cold snap in January 2018, the college — for a variety of reasons — continued to use gas for several days despite PSE&G telling it to stop. As a result, the gas company charged the college a major penalty. The college asked the BPU for a waiver, arguing it should not be forced to pay the whole penalty, in part because it is a state college. The BPU denied the waiver at a meeting last week. The college is reviewing the decision and determining its best course of action, said David Muha, a college spokesperson. — Ry Rivard BUS TERMINAL GETS REAL — The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Thursday approved the first construction contracts for early work on a new Midtown bus terminal. The work, which is still pending further review, would involve building a 3.5-acre lot atop portions of Dyer Avenue near the Lincoln Tunnel for buses to use while a new terminal is built. After the new terminal opens, the lot will be turned into green space. The $271 million awards will go to MLJ Contracting of Great Neck to construct the lot — known as a “deck over” — and to AECOM Tishman for construction management. — Ry Rivard MURPHY ON POWER PLANT — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy gave his most extensive public remarks about a new power plant planned for Newark since his administration green-lighted the project earlier this month. The plant is supposed to provide backup power to one of the nation’s largest sewage agencies. During Hurricane Sandy, a power outage caused the agency to spill hundreds of millions of gallons of sewage into New York Harbor. Speaking to reporters on Thursday at an event where protestors appeared in opposition to the plant, the governor said, “The objective here is to put a new-age plant in place — with, by the way, an enormous amount of parameters around it in terms of how frequently it can operate.” He pointed out that two other similar plants had previously “failed to get across the goal line” during his administration. He said: “We are as committed today as we ever have been to environmental justice. … Your definition of an economic or environmental calamity and mine, I think both have legitimacy. You don't want any plant to run any minute of any day, I get that. With all due respect, I don't want sewage and other pollution in the streets of Newark the next time, god forbid, a Superstorm Sandy hits.” — Ry Rivard OFFSHORE WIND TAKE 5: New York’s central authority to procure new renewable energy projects has learned from past failures. NYSERDA’s newest offshore wind solicitation requires developers to use proven, commercially available turbine and cable technologies. Call it the GE clause. A previous round (the third, but who’s counting), awarded three more than 1,000 megawatt offshore wind projects that would’ve been online in 2030 and 2031. But all three were based on a new turbine with a higher capacity that GE Vernova ultimately decided not to build. NYSERDA’s solicitation structure that tightly tied supply chain investments — GE promised factories in New York to build the new technology — made it impossible to detangle the contracts with developers from the agreements with GE. So no final contracts were signed, dealing a blow to the already struggling industry and to New York’s climate goals. The new request for proposals will instead take a sequential approach to using offshore wind awards to bolster efforts to secure factories for major components like towers, blades and nacelles. Winning developers will commit $100 million to support the New York supply chain — the exact use of which would be decided after the state makes additional awards to suppliers and ports. A separate process later this year will first qualify ports to be eligible for at least $300 million in state funding for major components. An ongoing solicitation with up to $200 million to support port infrastructure and other supply chain components has a deadline of Aug. 13. “It is more similar to the accelerated solicitation,” said NYSERDA president and CEO Doreen Harris in an interview. “We do believe this will allow us to execute on this RFP expeditiously.” The fifth offshore wind solicitation also sets a limit of 2,800 megawatts on the amount NYSERDA would procure to plug into New York City. The authority is partly waiting to see how an offshore wind transmission process plays out there. There’s no limit on the amount that could connect into Long Island. The solicitation also requires high-voltage, direct-current cables for projects with transmission lines traveling through “constrained areas” including the Long Island Sound. Developers must offer an option for projects to be ready to interconnect with an offshore transmission grid. Developers face a tight turnaround for this process. Non-price information for proposals is due Sept. 9, and prices are due on Oct. 18. Winners would be notified in November but the public won’t know what projects won or the cost until final contracts targeted for the first quarter of 2025. Success of this offshore wind solicitation is key to the state’s proposal to achieve 70 percent renewable electricity three years after the 2030 deadline. The plan filed on July 1 calls for 6 gigawatts of additional offshore wind by 2033 to hit the target. NYSERDA currently has two projects under contract that are moving forward, totaling 1,700 megawatts. The South Fork wind project contracted by the Long Island Power Authority is operational. The Public Service Commission has given NYSERDA the ability to procure a total of 9,000 megawatts to support that 2035 technology-specific target in the climate law. “Part of our rationale in moving this forward is to get offshore wind projects to fill our pipeline again beyond the 1,700 megawatts that we have and the projects that are under construction now to a next phase of projects that could be online in the early 2030s,” Harris said, “knowing the very significant contribution that they will make in that timeframe.” — Marie J. French RELIABILITY RISK — POLITICO’s Marie J. French: New York is at risk of blackouts without a significant new generation coming online before the middle of the next decade. The state’s independent grid operator identified this 2034 statewide reliability need in a preliminary analysis. The finding, if finalized after more vetting and inputs, would trigger a process to solve the gap aimed at ensuring New York’s grid remains able to meet the electricity demand even when it peaks and some resources are unavailable. The New York Independent System Operator has been warning of tightening reliability margins for years as the state seeks to shut down older power plants while the pace of building new renewables has lagged. But this would be the first time this assessment process has identified a long-term statewide reliability problem — more simply, a risk of blackouts above stringent regulatory standards. NYISO’s spokesperson Kevin Lanahan emphasized the preliminary nature of the results, which will be finalized in November. He told POLITICO they are subject to updated load forecasts — which predict power use — the inclusion of additional renewables and input from state and federal regulators and policymakers. “This is a draft. It's preliminary, but the need shows up in the last year of the time horizon,” Lanahan said. “That gives us plenty of time to continue to identify what's driving that, and then if it persists, if it continues to show up in the final [assessment], it gives us plenty of time to plan for how to address it and find those solutions.” This potential shortfall serves as another warning sign for New York’s energy policymakers as they struggle to achieve goals set in the state’s landmark 2019 climate law. Growing electricity demand, primarily from large projects such as Micron, have likely put out of reach the state’s goal of having 70 percent of its energy come from renewable sources by 2030. The same factor is driving the resource adequacy shortfall identified by the NYISO’s preliminary report. LANDER PROBING HURRICANE READINESS — New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is probing the city’s hurricane readiness ahead of what is expected to be an active storm season. In a letter Tuesday to Mayor Eric Adams, Lander requested information across a handful of categories, including information on the city’s emergency alert system, catch basin cleaning work and buyouts of flood-prone property. In the letter, obtained by POLITICO, Lander reminded Adams of previous audits by his office that found “a significant portion of federal recovery funds” from Hurricane Sandy had yet to be spent a decade after the storm and “gaps in storm preparedness.” Lander asked for updates each month through the end of November. — Ry Rivard BIG MONEY FOR BIG RIG CHARGING — A multi-state coalition led by New Jersey is among the largest recipients of EPA grant money to reduce greenhouse gases. The $250 million grant, announced last week, is meant to dot I-95 with hundreds of EV charging ports for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles at 20 sites in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Maryland. “It tracks the I-95 corridor, so we’re really excited about it because of how many communities it will benefit,” EPA Region 2 Administrator Lisa Garcia told POLITICO. Major ports are near the interstate, including Baltimore and Newark, which competes with Los Angeles to be the nation’s largest. The EPA could announce more action soon related to reducing pollution around ports. The grant is one of two dozen worth more than $4 billion awarded last week, chosen out of hundreds of project submissions. Garcia said part of the project’s appeal was the four states working together, led by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Combined, the projects are expected to reduce greenhouse emissions by nearly one billion tons by 2050. EPA is hoping to get the money, which comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, to states by the end of the calendar year. — Ry Rivard | 
