| NO NEW STATE ENERGY GOAL — POLITICO’s Marie J. French: Gov. Kathy Hochul hasn’t followed through on a commitment to set new targets for reducing energy use in state buildings. Hochul’s administration, at an obscure state council meeting, failed to take actions required under the governor’s signature 2022 executive order on energy. The lack of a new 2030 target comes as the state is unlikely to achieve the current 2025 goal. “New York State is viewed as a national and global leader on climate, and yet our actions are not lining up,” said Liz Moran, New York policy advocate for Earthjustice. “We need to see words go into action, and there couldn't be a lower hanging fruit than addressing the buildings that the state is accountable for.” Hochul’s 2022 executive order, signed with fanfare during Climate Week NYC, aimed to set nation-leading sustainability goals for New York state’s operations. It included a 2030 goal for 100 percent renewable electricity at state agencies and a zero-emissions, light-duty fleet by 2035. The state won’t complete projects to achieve 11 trillion British thermal units in energy savings by 2025, as the executive order also calls for. The New York Power Authority, which oversees the initiative, says it is on track to hit the target when including committed projects in the total. The lack of a new goal underscores concerns from some environmental advocates and Democratic lawmakers that New York is not moving aggressively enough to implement the state’s climate law. ENVIRONMENTAL LINES BEING DRAWN — New Jersey lawmakers in the Senate advanced an ambitious bill to punish fossil fuel companies for climate change, while lawmakers in the Assembly advanced a bill to delay a rule meant to phase out diesel trucks. The split screen — with committee hearings happening simultaneously on Thursday — showed two competing visions for environmental policy in the state ahead of next year’s statehouse elections. The bill with the greatest chance of passing is truck-related legislation that has angered environmental groups and was waved off by the governor’s office. The Assembly Transportation and Independent Authorities unanimously approved a bill to delay the start of NewJersey’s zero-emission truck sales mandate by two years amid concerns that there aren’t enough electric trucks or chargers. Assembly Transportation Chair Clinton Calabrese, a Democrat who sponsored a version of the bill, said he isn’t against such a rule, which mirrors a California plan, but New Jersey isn’t ready. “We’re working our best to solve this — both have to happen, we have to build infrastructure, we need to sell electric vehicles, and the future generations will save the day,” he said toward the end of a three-hour hearing on the bill. “I’ve got to tell my 2-year-old to get ready kid.” Ed Potosnak, the head of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, said lawmakers, particularly Democrats, are misreading the room. In an interview, he said Democratic voters are going to stay home during next year’s legislative elections if environmental goals get thrown overboard because they won’t be “motivated to support people who are for more dirty air.” “I’m not sure why having a young child he wants dirtier air, that’s something he’s going to have to answer for,” Potosnak said of Calabrese. Assemblymember Michael Inganamort, a Republican, applauded the bill in a statement aimed at the heart of Gov. Phil Murphy’s pledge to be the nation’s greenest governor and make New Jersey the “California of the East.” “New Jersey is still not California, despite Gov. Murphy’s promise to make it so,” Inganamort said. Meanwhile, in the Senate Environment and Energy Committee, the politics could not have been more different. Committee Democrats advanced a bill that would create a “climate superfund” to collect billions of dollars from coal, gas and oil companies to pay for climate change-related damage. A similar bill is already on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk. But just because the bill advanced in New Jersey doesn’t mean it’ll keep moving. Even one of the bill’s sponsors and the committee chair, Sen. Bob Smith, a Democrat, didn’t seem optimistic about its chances. “If there’s not a very, very enthusiastic grassroots movement it’s not going to happen, because this is out of the ordinary,” he said at the end of a lengthy committee hearing. “Think back to the tobacco settlement, it took 20 years to get to that point.” Other legislation, like a bill to mandate 100 percent clean power that Smith has been championing for a while, has also been stuck in the Senate. — Ry Rivard CANADA THREATENS ENERGY TIES — POLITICO’s Mike Blanchfield and Sue Allan: The premier of Canada’s largest province is threatening to cut energy exports to the United States in response to President-elect Donald Trump's threats of 25 percent tariffs. Doug Ford, Ontario’s premier, issued the warning after a meeting of Canada’s provincial premiers that was hosted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Parliament Hill on Wednesday. “We will go to the extent of cutting off their energy — going down to Michigan, going down to New York State and over to Wisconsin. I don’t want this to happen, but my No. 1 job is to protect Ontarians and Canadians as a whole,” Ford said after the meeting. “We need to be ready. We need to be ready to fight. This fight is coming 100 percent on Jan. 20 or Jan. 21.” — The New York and Canadian electric grids are closely linked with multiple transmission lines. Interties with neighboring systems are key to the reliability of New York’s grid. Ontario exported more than 4 terawatt-hours of electricity to New York in 2022 while importing less than 250 gigawatt-hours. Notably, NYSERDA has a contract with Hydro-Québec, that Canadian province’s electric utility, to get 10.4 terawatt-hours of electricity delivered via an under-construction line to New York City. Quebec’s government controls the utility. The explicit threat to throttle energy exports from Canada into New York could raise reliability and cost concerns. It also poses a potential problem for Canadian provinces to meet their own growing energy needs and balance the seasonal nature of hydropower resources. The United States was a net electricity exporter to Canada for several months in 2024, according to federal data. Monthly average exports of electricity from the U.S. to Canada in 2023 rose 70 percent over the previous year while average imports from Canada to the U.S. dropped 36 percent. That was mainly driven by exports from the western U.S. into western Canada which was heavily impacted by drought. The balance between New York and Quebec faces a similar dynamic. Quebec was a net importer of electricity from New England for several months recently and exports into New York dropped 72 percent in 2023. Some critics of the Champlain Hudson Power Express project remain skeptical that Hydro-Québec will be able to meet its obligations to deliver energy to New York. The aggressive rhetoric from a top Canadian leader may elevate concerns about reliance on imported power. — CANADA ENERGY BLUSTER: “The energy supply for [the Champlain Hudson Power Express] is from Hydro-Québec — located in the province of Québec — which has a long-term contract with NYSERDA to annually deliver 10.4 TWh of clean energy to New York City,” said CHPE spokesperson Vincent Novicki in a statement. “The comments from Ontario’s premier would not impact that contract or HQ’s commitment to CHPE and New York State.” The New York Independent System Operator declined to comment. — Marie J. French DEEP IN THE MAILBAG: Push for more renewables? Straight to spam. The New York Power Authority continues to get pressured to more than quintuple its early-stage renewables portfolio. NYPA officials on Tuesday located some of the more than 5,000 comments supporting a 15-gigawatt target that had initially been caught in the proverbial spam folder. The authority has proposed a more modest initial tranche of 3.6 gigawatts of renewables and battery storage as it navigates a new business line in partnership with private developers. NYPA President and CEO Justin Driscoll has said only initial projects have been identified and a final plan is expected by the end of January. The Public Power NY campaign tracked the deluge of comments submitted via email through a third-party form, which is commonly used by advocacy groups to simplify commenting campaigns. The group, backed by the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, has been a major force behind the campaign to have NYPA build new renewables and an antagonist of Driscoll. NYPA does not typically run large-scale public comment processes and, as a utility, has robust cybersecurity protocols. NYPA officials initially indicated they did not receive that volume of input, reporting about 300 e-mail and written comments during a board meeting earlier Tuesday. That led to criticism from Public Power backers and offers to print out all 5,000 form comments and deliver them to NYPA. NYPA now estimates it has received 1,100 email comments, spokesperson Lindsay Kryzak said. The authority is working to clear additional comments that were quarantined due to email security controls, Kryzak said. NYPA plans to reach out to the Public Power campaign to resolve the issue In an effort to demonstrate openness to public input, a Public Power NY campaign representative was invited to the board of trustees meeting Tuesday. “By embracing a robust build-out of renewable energy you can turn this state into a beacon that can illuminate the entire world,” said Patrick Robbins, coordinator of the Energy Democracy Alliance and co-chair of the Public Power NY coalition. “I know what we’re proposing is unusual, it’s unconventional and it doesn’t fit a purely market-driven approach, but the resources you’re building belong to all of New York and this is clearly what the people of New York want and need.” NYPA board members generally expressed support for the authority’s officials and applauded the extensive public outreach. NYPA board Chair John Koelmel appeared to endorse the current approach to new renewables by the authority. “This is a real significant moment for us to really be creative, that said we can’t get too far out over our skis,” he said. Koelmel raised an issue with the potential financial limitations of a requirement — a priority of the Public Power NY campaign — for NYPA to maintain 51 percent ownership of projects. NYPA officials view that as limiting the ability to recycle capital and maximize the number of projects it can work on. Driscoll said the board would get information on the final renewables plan, ahead of a vote at the Jan. 28 board meeting and an end of January report to the Legislature. — Marie J. French — Also at the meeting: NYPA chief operating officer Joe Kessler said the state is on track to deliver decarbonization plans for the 15 highest energy-using sites next year. Kessler also said the state has hit 9.4 trillion British thermal units of energy use reduction and is on track for 11 trillion Btu by 2025. Those figures include unfinished projects, as POLITICO has reported, and the closure of state prisons has contributed the most to the achievement of that energy efficiency goal. NYPA is also working on a 2030 goal, Kessler said. An executive order tasked a state council with setting that goal by the end of this year. “The interesting thing is that the target was more geared toward energy efficiency and now I think we’re going to look at measures more along the lines of decarbonization,” Kessler said. “There’s a natural correlation but we’re really focused on the carbon.” — Plus, a rate hike for customers: NYPA is also moving forward with a proposed rate hike that will hit municipal power customers and other “preference power” customers who are entitled to at-cost electricity from the Niagara and St. Lawrence hydropower dams. NYPA says it has been undercharging these customers but the proposal to nearly triple the rates over four years is already getting pushback from the New York Association of Public Power, which represents 12 municipal utilities. “For NYPA to propose to increase rates by more than 2.5 times in these times of inflation for essential services is not acceptable for our customers and does not help advance the State’s clean energy goals,” said Robert T. Kennedy, the mayor of Freeport, in a statement. The higher rates are subject to public comment. CORBETT MOVES ON — POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: Long-time New Jersey Transit CEO Kevin Corbett is stepping down from the agency in mid-January, he said Monday. The former head of the Gateway Development Commission and a veteran transportation leader in New Jersey, Kris Kolluri, will take over the job for the remainder of Gov. Phil Murphy’s term. In a resignation letter, Corbett said he wants to spend more time with his family and has accepted an opportunity at one of the state’s universities. “The ultimate goal for any CEO is to leave their organization stronger than they found it,” Corbett wrote. “I know we have achieved that together.” When Murphy came to office, the agency was in shambles, and while it continues to face criticism from commuters for delays, Corbett listed a series of major moves he made since taking the job in 2018, at the start of Murphy’s first term.
| 
