| | | | |  | | By Marie J. French and Ry Rivard | | Presented by |  | | | | | ELECTION CONCERNS LOOM: The possibility of a second Trump administration will loom large over the usual Climate Week back-to-back panels and announcements, as POLITICO’s Zack Colman and Sara Schonhardt aptly noted. For New York’s climate goals, the stakes are high. Another pause on offshore wind permitting could put the achievement of a key 70 percent renewable electricity target even farther out of reach. The binary political risk also loomed over discussions at last week’s Alliance for Clean Energy conference, where renewable advocates made the policy case for a Democratic victory. Rise Light and Power’s Clint Plummer joked he hopes after the election that NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen Harris “isn’t the only President Harris we know.” If former President Donald Trump is elected, the industry will expect New York and other states to step up efforts. “In the event that it goes less pro-renewables, it's going to be increasingly important for states to be on the forefront,” Plummer said. The industry also hopes to mobilize labor and other allies to protect incentives codified in the Inflation Reduction Act if Trump is elected. “Renewables is a very big tent, and the industry touches a lot of different people,” said Ben Koffel, chief commercial officer at Vineyard Offshore. “I hope that … tent will mobilize to try to talk about the benefits that this is bringing to the region.” Harris, the head of NYSERDA, said New York has made significant progress in the past few years and that will continue regardless of a change in direction at the federal level. “Many of our policies came during a Trump administration,” she said. “When you think about the inflation Reduction Act, the policy, and it's one that we will continue to benefit from, the momentum that the state has, and that the governor has made clear is necessary, will continue.” — Marie J. French HAPPY MONDAY MORNING: Let us know if you have tips, story ideas or life advice. We're always here at mfrench@politico.com and rrivard@politico.com. And if you like this letter, please tell a friend and/or loved one to sign up. Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.
| | A message from Con Edison: Climate change is the challenge of our lifetime, and Con Edison is partnering with industry leaders at Climate Week 2024 to help New York meet our clean energy goals. We're delivering renewable power, maintaining our grid, and supporting green jobs. Join our efforts to create a clean energy future for all New Yorkers. Learn more. | | | SUMMER ENDS, AND NO CAP AND INVEST REGS: The state has not issued draft regulations for public comment on cap-and-invest as a summer 2024 deadline for the milestone enters the rearview mirror. This is not a surprise but means New York still does not have policies established to hit a 2030 economy-wide target of cutting emissions 40 percent from 1990 levels. It’s going to be a heavy lift. “Our teams are still hard at work,” said interim DEC Commissioner Sean Mahar. “Part of what we’re really doing is making sure we get this right. Because this is so essential to our climate work and so far-reaching in the way that it’s going to touch and impact New Yorkers, we wanted to make sure that we’re spending the right time to build it in the right way … because we want to make sure it reaches the governor’s goals of affordability and really make sure it’s done in a way to drive and reach those emissions reduction targets.” Mahar declined to say definitively whether revenues from cap-and-invest would be included in the governor’s budget proposal in January. Under the deal reached with lawmakers last year, spending will have to go through the budget process. Regulations targeting planet-warming refrigerants, which are also aligned with the goals of the climate law and recommended in the scoping plan, have also not been finalized. — Marie J. French WIND PORTS REPORT: Despite turbulence in the offshore wind industry, public officials should continue to invest in wind-related port infrastructure, argues a new report from the Regional Plan Association and Karp Strategies, an urban planning adviser. Robert Freudenberg, the vice president of RPA’s energy and environmental programs, compared the issue to the chicken or egg problem. “But this one’s a little easier to solve than the chicken or egg thing,” he said in an interview, “because it’s the ports that need to come first.” Without regional ports able to handle wind-related work, there won’t be jobs on the shore for projects out at sea because, according to RPA, “waterfront port facilities are needed to manufacture the components of offshore wind turbines (as well as transmission infrastructure), store them, assemble and piece them together, and move them out to lease areas to be installed. Once developed, offshore wind projects need port facilities to operate and maintain them.” Looking at New Jersey, where five wind farms have been approved and two have already been canceled, the report’s authors said the state remains committed to the industry and that isn’t going away. “You have to stay the course, you have to play the long game,” said Rebecca Karp, the head of Karp Strategies. The findings, which were provided to POLITICO and will be posted here at 8:30 a.m., will be discussed at a Climate Week panel this morning in Manhattan. — Ry Rivard Happy Climate Week. If we tried to list all the panels and events going on, you’d never get to the end of this newsletter. But here’s a few highlights: MONDAY — Members of the MTA board are expected to discuss the agency’s five-year, $68 billion capital plan. The capital program committee meets at 1 p.m. — Gov. Kathy Hochul makes an announcement with other U.S. Climate Alliance members. John O’Leary, her deputy secretary for energy, participates in an event on public-private partnerships for a sustainable environment. TUESDAY — City and State holds a Climate Justice Forum sponsored by Rise Light and Power, WE ACT for Environmental Justice and others, 1 p.m., MoMA PS1, Queens. Speakers include Sen. Jessica Ramos, Elijah Hutchinson from Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, an offshore wind adviser with NYSERDA, former DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos and many more. — Supporters of the Climate Superfund bill plan to deliver a petition to Hochul’s New York City office, noon, 633 3rd Avenue, New York. — NYSERDA holds a webinar on subsidies for retail storage in disadvantaged communities to support the state’s storage targets, 1 p.m. — NYSERDA’s Susanne DesRoches participates in a roundtable on a holistic approach to renovating buildings, NYSERDA’s Georges Sassine speaks at an offshore wind transmission conference. WEDNESDAY — The MTA board is expected to discuss and vote on the agency's five-year, $68 billion capital plan, 9 a.m. — The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities is expected to consider Leading Light Wind’s request to pause its offshore wind project while it shops for turbines, the engines that help turn wind into electricity. The delay request, first reported by POLITICO, suggests the prices of the project are likely to escalate as well, which is something at least one board member has previously suggested should not be allowed. BPU meets at 10 a.m. — Proponents of new nuclear in New York hold a symposium, 9 a.m., Cornell Tech Campus, Roosevelt Island, in New York City. — The EPA hosts a community advisory group meeting on the cleanup of PCBs from the Hudson River Superfund site, 1 p.m. THURSDAY — The Department of Public Service holds a technical conference on its grid flexibility study as part of the “Grid of the Future” effort, 2 p.m. — NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen Harris speaks at a BloombergNEF panel on “Tripling Renewables Deployment at Speed and Scale.” Kessler speaks at an IRA-focused panel. O’Leary is scheduled to participate in a fireside chat at an event hosted by the Information Technology Industry Council.
| | | | A message from Con Edison:   | | | | | RENEWABLE WISH LIST — POLITICO’s Marie J. French: Renewable developers and environmental groups want Gov. Kathy Hochul to take some near-term steps to help the bruised industry. Their list of recommendations, obtained by POLITICO, includes stabilizing tax assessments for renewable projects, increasing the procurement of renewables each year, accelerated permitting, tax breaks for commercial storage projects and increasing the state’s goal for building distributed solar projects. The industry has previously raised many of the requests. The Alliance for Clean Energy New York, the state’s main lobbying group for renewable developers, recently sent the list of 10 recommendations to the governor’s office. A press conference about the requests with environmental group leaders who are also on the board of ACE — New York League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club and Environmental Advocates NY — was planned ahead of the group’s regular fall conference earlier this week. But it was indefinitely postponed due to an unspecified “scheduling issue.” The push for action comes at a time when the governor is facing backlash from environmentalists over her concerns about the cost of the state’s climate goals, focus on the potential role of nuclear power and consideration of delaying the 2030 target for 70 percent renewables. At the same time, the governor’s more public dialogue about the challenges facing the state’s implementation of the climate law has won praise from some business groups and moderate Democrats. The renewable industry is looking for reassurances that the governor is committed to procuring massive amounts of onshore wind and solar, battery storage and offshore wind. FERC HEAD DEFENDS NJ PIPELINE — POLITICO’s Catherine Morehouse: FERC Chair Willie Phillips said the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals “erred” in throwing out the commission’s approval of a New Jersey natural gas pipeline, but he’s open to revisiting the agency’s 25-year-old pipeline policy as the court repeatedly rejects FERC’s approach. The chair said he believes the appeals court’s rulings against the commission’s decisions to sign off on certifications for two liquefied natural gas terminals in Texas and the pipeline is “clearly a shift in the legal landscape” even as he argued the court made a mistake in vacating the certificate for the New Jersey Transco Pipeline. PORT STRIKE LOOMS — POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: The East Coast’s largest port and the shipping industry are starting to prepare for a dockworkers strike that could shut down most operations at ports along the Atlantic Seaboard and in the Gulf of Mexico on Oct. 1. “We’re working to bring in as many ships as possible, have an orderly shutdown of those ships and then encouraging the shippers — through working with both the truckers and the rail carriers — to get as much cargo out as humanly possible, as quickly as possible,” Beth Rooney, the director of the maritime port at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said on Thursday. MTA NEEDS A LOT — POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is now facing a $48 billion funding hole at the MTA, a gap made worse by her decision to pause congestion pricing and forcing lawmakers to consider alternatives to tolls that were set to raise money for the transit system starting this summer. Money from a tolling plan she nixed earlier this year would have helped fund $15 billion for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s current five-year plan to repair and upgrade infrastructure for New York City’s rundown mass transit system. On Wednesday, the MTA unveiled its next five-year plan, which identifies $68 billion in new repairs and upgrades. MTA officials have a pretty good idea where they can get about half of that money but need lawmakers in Albany to help come up with the rest, roughly $33 billion. RENEWABLES IN THE SPOTLIGHT: It’s been about a year since the Public Service Commission rejected an effort by renewable developers to get higher prices than they’d agreed upon with NYSERDA. That move sent shock waves through the industry and led developers to cancel most of their contracts with New York’s renewables procurer. “The phoenix has now arisen from the ashes,” NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen Harris told the renewables industry at the Alliance for Clean Energy New York conference in Albany on Tuesday. She declared “mission accomplished” on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s commitment to address the challenges that faced the industry. Harris pointed to the aggressive pace of renewable solicitations over the last year. The mood of the state’s renewable energy developers has certainly improved since last year, but they still see the need for more action by Hochul’s administration. “I don’t think it’s mission accomplished but we’re definitely working together to go in the right direction,” said Stephane Desdunes, vice president of development for EDF Renewables. “There’s still a lot of work to be done.” Desdunes, who is on the board of ACE NY, noted that the challenges of higher costs due to inflation and supply chain issues aren’t unique to New York’s market and are more of a broad issue facing the industry. He said he’s “cautiously optimistic.” Developers are also awaiting the results of the latest solicitations. NYSERDA hasn’t publicly released details of winners of the 2023 onshore awards. Winners of the 2022 solicitation were announced in October 2023 — nine of the awards totaling 1,167 megawatts have fully executed their contracts and seven totaling 724 megawatts are still finalizing deals but “are expected to be fully executed in the coming months.” Six of the projects totaling 503 megawatts canceled their contracts, according to NYSERDA. The authority expects to notify winners of the 2024 solicitation by the end of this month. Harris also sought to emphasize the state’s continued commitment to new renewables. She said that the emerging technologies — hydrogen, long-duration storage and advanced nuclear — discussed at a summit in Syracuse earlier this month were being looked at to “complement” renewables. “New York will have a highly renewable future,” Harris said. “The renewable energy pie will continue to grow in the coming decades.” NYSERDA and the Department of Public Service in a recent report said the state is unlikely to hit the 70 percent renewable electricity by 2030 goal enshrined in the climate law, alarming renewable advocates. “The state of New York is all in on the goals of the climate act and achieving them,” said John O’Leary, Hochul’s deputy secretary for energy when asked about the commitment to the 2030 goal and concerns about a delay. But he said that the interim review, which precedes potential action by the Public Service Commission, highlights some important points including load growth and the scale of what has to be done. “We have to take an honest assessment of what is physically and practically achievable in the timeframe that we have,” he said. O’Leary said the 70 percent goal isn’t the only target — there are also emissions reduction mandates that “frankly, are much more sweeping and ambitious.” Hochul has already boosted the distributed solar target in the climate law, O’Leary noted, and signaled openness to the push from ACE NY and solar groups to raise that target from 10 gigawatts by 2030 to 20 gigawatts by 2035. Interim Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Sean Mahar also spoke during the conference and highlighted that the DEC is looking to align its Superfund program, which is going through a reauthorization process, with renewable goals. He said the department wants to encourage renewable developers to seriously consider brownfield sites. Mahar said the department is looking at incentives that might be needed and potential statutory changes. “We want to work with you to alleviate pressures on landscapes that are more sensitive,” he said. — Marie J. French ENVIRO GROUP SCORES LAWMAKERS AFTER LACKLUSTER SESSION: The New York League of Conservation Voters placed the responsibility for the lack of progress on several major climate policies on the Assembly in its annual scorecard for state lawmakers. “This legislative paralysis in the Assembly must end if we are to meet our climate goals and protect future generations,” wrote NYLCV President and CEO Julie Tighe in the preamble to the scorecard, which was released Wednesday. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s conference had an average score, which is developed based on voting for or sponsoring measures supported by NYLCV, of 88 percent. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins’ conference got a score of 98 percent. Part of the disparity is because some progressive Assembly Democrats do not support one of NYLCV’s top priorities: a low-carbon fuel standard in transportation, because of concerns about the market-based policy from environmental justice communities. Meanwhile, some suburban and upstate Assembly Democrats declined to support a major shift to regulating the gas system, the NY HEAT Act. NYLCV and other groups are planning to push for that measure again in the upcoming session. The group celebrated passage of some measures it supported including an expansion of the food scraps donation program, wildlife crossings and a Suffolk County water quality bill. — Marie J. French
| | A message from Con Edison: Con Edison is making proactive, critical infrastructure upgrades in support of New York's clean energy future. Our new PowerReady Micromobility Program offers incentives for building safe, efficient charging stations across the city for electric bikes and scooters. This initiative will not only advance our ongoing efforts to increase electrification but also expand access to clean energy transportation for even more New Yorkers. Learn more. | | | LABOR UNREST THREATENS HARRIS ECONOMIC PITCH — POLITICO’s Ry Rivard, Lawrence Ukenye, Oriana Pawlyk and Sam Ogozalek: Tens of thousands of Boeing workers are walking picket lines and other essential workers are threatening to disrupt the economy mere days before early voting starts in some states. Vice President Kamala Harris has staked her campaign on convincing Americans that they’ll be better off with her in the White House, but another major strike — especially one that could disrupt supply chains with the holiday shopping season looming — could kneecap the economy and sour voters. PJM PROBLEMS — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s office is anticipating a double-digit increase to electric bills next year after prices skyrocketed during the most recent auction to procure electricity generation for the nation’s largest power market. Now New Jersey and other blue states — with hopes of a bipartisan coalition eventually forming — are trying to push the grid operator and auction manager, PJM Interconnection, to speed up plans to upgrade the grid, allowing more power generators to plug in and increase the amount of power available, which would drive down energy costs. One salvo in that push played out Monday morning when two New Jersey officials — one from Murphy’s office and another from the state Board of Public Utilities — spoke at a PJM committee meeting exploring transmission planning. Illinois’ deputy governor for energy issues, Bria Scudder, was also expected to speak. That relatively rare show of political power at an otherwise very in-the-weeds PJM meeting is meant to signal that governors are taking an interest in PJM, given how its problems can cause political blowback for them. Prices surged more than $200 per megawatt-day over last year’s capacity auction. The new prices take effect next summer. The New Jersey BPU has been studying how much the PJM auction will increase bills, calculations that are complicated by the state’s own power supply auction process that can be a hedge against sudden price spikes at PJM. Preethy Thangaraj, the deputy director of Murphy’s Office of Climate Action and the Green Economy, told PJM that New Jersey expects the higher prices will “burden ratepayers next year with double-digit rate increases” when the related charges appear on bills. A report by the Maryland People’s Counsel already found that state’s customers “face average annual electricity bill increases of hundreds of dollars.” New Jersey urged PJM to have a “clear cut need for forward-looking, proactive infrastructure planning,” including “no-regrets transmission projects.” Different interest groups have different takes on what is to blame for the high prices. The Maryland People’s Counsel blamed PJM’s failure to plan ahead for the shutdown of coal and gas power plants. Advocates from the Natural Resources Defense Council blamed the unreliability of existing coal and gas plants. PJM’s own analysis showed the amount of generation available is down and demand is up — plus there have been energy accounting changes that show gas and coal are less reliable than previously thought. By one measure, the amount of excess capacity in the 13-state power market has gone from more than 16 gigawatts to less than 1 gigawatt, according to PJM’s analysis. Abe Silverman, a former BPU general counsel who is now a research faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, said there is a yearslong story where old gas, oil and coal plants have been shutting down but PJM has been slow to adapt. “Right now it’s been incredibly slow to bring on new generation in response to the price signal,” he said, adding, “We’ve been burning off excess capacity for years and now we’ve reached the end of the line.” — Ry Rivard | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
