READY TO TOLL — If New York Gov. Kathy Hochul lifts her pause on the MTA’s congestion pricing plan and other legal hurdles are cleared, transit officials are confident they can quickly start collecting tolls. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has already installed tolling cameras and has used the time since Hochul put the program on ice to try to perfect that system. “There’s some complicated spots like where the Port Authority, because of New Jersey, wouldn’t let us get into the Lincoln Tunnel area,” said MTA Chair Janno Lieber. “Are we getting the right shots? Are we getting the right images? All of that stuff is being worked through.” Hochul halted the tolling plan, which would help the MTA pay for $15 billion in infrastructure upgrades, just before it was set to start this summer. The plan still faces competing legal challenges. One case, in New York state court, aims to force her to resume the tolling program. Another, in New Jersey federal court, aims to block the tolls by forcing a redo of a required environmental assessment. Hochul is supposed to make a key filing in the New York case just after the election and has vowed to come up with a workable tolling plan in the coming months. Lieber also said a back office team who would work on the plan was put on hold but is “standing at the ready.” — Ry Rivard SHARING IS CARING FOR WIND — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy helped open an offshore wind conference in Atlantic City on Tuesday with some rah-rah for his own clean energy and economic development policies, but also sounded a noticeably more regional note. The remarks are a sign of a major shift from the early days of the offshore wind industry when everyone wanted everything to themselves. Now, states seem to be trying to get the biggest slice of the biggest pie they can, in part because the industry has suffered repeated setbacks. Murphy name-checked New York a handful of times, according to his prepared remarks at American Clean Power’s offshore wind conference. The two states also hosted a joint event for suppliers. Back when the governor gave a speech to a similar crowd in Atlantic City in the spring of 2022, the Murphy administration was promising New Jersey would be the hub and the epicenter of the offshore wind industry. By contrast, the governor on Tuesday said New Jersey and New York now have the same goal — “establishing our entire region as the epicenter for the offshore wind revolution.” “Much of our state’s success thus far is rooted in the strength of our partnerships — at both the federal and regional level,” he said, according to his prepared remarks. “We have also been working alongside our friends in New York to create new opportunities for workers and entrepreneurs in the tri-state area,” he said. — Ry Rivard BLUE STATES PUSH PJM — POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: Speaking of multistate partnership … New Jersey and other blue states are pushing the regional grid operator to take swift action to curb skyrocketing energy prices. In a letter to PJM Interconnection, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Delaware Gov. John Carney and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker praised the grid operator for delaying a planned auction that could lead to higher power bills for customers in their states and across the mid-Atlantic. But they warned that without changes to the way PJM manages its auctions, where it helps secure electricity for the grid, consumers in the 13-state region could be stuck with $30 billion more in energy costs. “This would be far beyond what is needed to send a price signal encouraging new capacity, at the expense of our consumers,” the governors said in a letter written late last week but announced on Tuesday. Murphy in particular took aim at PJM’s slow approval process for new power generators to connect to the grid, which makes it hard for wind and solar to connect even as gas and coal plants have been retired. “In New Jersey , we’re doing our part by bringing new resources to the market and making electricity more affordable for families and businesses as we look to a clean and resilient energy future,” Murphy said in a statement. “However, our grid operator must work in lockstep with the states and recognize that the market isn’t responding quickly enough due to current conditions of slow interconnection.” DEPT. OF GOOD TIMING: The Biden administration announced nearly $3 billion in funding for ports around the country to upgrade their equipment to zero-emissions infrastructure and to conduct air quality and climate planning. Among the awards are $344 million for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and $55 million for a private ferry operator between New York and New Jersey. The Port Authority is working with a handful of partners to deploy electric cargo handling equipment and drayage trucks with supporting charging infrastructure and install vessel shore power infrastructure. The ferry operator, SeaStreak LLC, is getting money to run zero-emission ferries between New York City and North Jersey. The awards, funded through the Inflation Reduction Act, deliver on a long-time priority for the environmental justice movement, which has for years pointed out that the communities near shipping hubs — predominantly low-income communities and communities of color — suffer disproportionate rates of asthma and other illnesses. — Annie Snider and Ry Rivard CAP AND TRADE ON THE BALLOT — POLITICO’s Jordan Wolman: There’s a measure in Washington state where voters will decide whether to keep or throw out their landmark carbon pricing program. If Washington's program survives, it could become a linchpin in North America's slowly mushrooming carbon-pricing network. New York is working on its own “cap and invest” program and mulling lower price ceilings in part due to the backlash in Washington spreading across North America and concerns around affordability. CLARIFICATION: New Jersey Natural Gas expects its energy efficiency proposal, which the BPU is expected to take up today, could help participating customers save more than 94 million therms of natural gas and prevent more than 694,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere. In Tuesday’s newsletter, an item I wrote should have included this information. — Ry Rivard PREVIEWING ENERGY EFFICIENCY RATE HIKES — The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities is expected to vote on rate increases for every major utility in the state at a special Wednesday board meeting. The rate increases sought by the utilities range from less than 1 percent to just over 5 percent. While most rate increases are the product of complex market forces, infrastructure needs and attempts to boost shareholders’ bottom line, these increases are directly tied back to Gov. Phil Murphy’s clean energy goals and a law he signed, the Clean Energy Act of 2018, which requires utilities to implement energy efficiency measures. The first three-year efficiency program reduced demand for power and gas by 14 million megawatt hours and 27 million thermal units. That program had a $1 billion budget. For this three-year cycle, which begins on Jan. 1, utilities have asked to spend more than $6 billion, according to rate filings. At a time when rate increases have gotten legislative attention, it’s impossible for most ratepayers to know what increases will be coming, since the final plans the BPU will be voting on this week have not been made public as of Monday evening. Brian Lipman, the state’s ratepayer watchdog, said the efficiency targets are getting more difficult and more expensive to meet. “We’re beyond changing a light bulb to an LED, we have to do more to get these savings,” he said. Lipman said he had trouble getting an answer to whether customers will be paying more or less money given that energy demand may go down but energy and infrastructure-related costs may continue to rise. “Will they be paying less overall for their utility bill?” he said. “And that’s something that is unclear and part of the reason is that, who knows what bills will be in two years.” PSE&G’s original request — which, like the other utilities’, was made late last year and is expected to be pared down before being approved by the BPU — asked to spend $3.4 billion over several years on a state-mandated energy efficiency program, which would result in a lifetime savings to customers of $3.5 billion and result in about 10 million fewer tons of greenhouse gases being emitted. Though its customers are expected to save money from reduced energy use, bills would increase by about $3 a month for the typical electric customer and $2.75 a month for the average gas customer. The largest request on a percent basis came from New Jersey Natural Gas, which asked for as much as $77 a year, which amounts to about $6 a month, and said late last year that it “is not possible to quantify the potential savings for this program.” — Ry Rivard IRA BOOSTS EV CHARGER GROWTH: New York-based electric vehicle rideshare and charging company Revel recently completed one of the first sales of the tax credit for EV chargers under the Inflation Reduction Act, the company’s director of policy and government affairs, Jake Potent, tells POLITICO’s Morning Energy. Potent said selling its 30C credits — permitted under the transferability provisions introduced in the IRA — will be critical to giving the company the cash to grow, especially as it looks to build expensive fast chargers in high-cost urban markets like New York City. The company couldn’t previously take advantage of 30C because it didn’t have a tax liability, he added. “Urban areas are really lagging behind in EV charging buildout, and it’s the areas that really need it most,” Potent said. “It’s really important to have this tax credit to help make the economics of these sites work.” Treasury proposed a rule in September implementing the 30C credit, which expanded the geographic areas eligible for the incentive, including many urban areas, and upped the amount it would cover per charger. Revel sold the credits generated by its new fast charging station in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to an undisclosed individual investor, with the startup Giraffe Financial acting as the broker. — James Bikales
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