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New York Climate Act scoping plan – Working with that?


On December 30, 2021, New York State released for public comment Draft scoping plan defines how to “achieve the State’s clean energy and climate agenda”. Due to profound changes to lifestyles, risks to reliable electrical systems, dramatically increased costs, severe environmental impacts of wind, solar and the required storage technologies, and the lack of any direct benefit from global warming, all New Yorkers are required to participate in the comment process. For everyone else, it’s worth considering what the “plan” is when your “net-zero” version is suggested. Spoiler alert for anyone coming from Europe – no, they learned nothing from the energy crisis currently unfolding there.

Background

The Climate Leadership and the Community Protection Act (Climate Act) was passed in 2019 and came into effect on January 1, 2020. Climate Action Council has worked since then to develop plans to implement the Act. Starting in the fall of 2020 seven consultation board developed recommended policy to achieve the targets presented to the Climate Action Council in the spring of 2021. In the summer of 2021, the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the Economic Adviser Environment + Energy (E3) prepared Integrated Analytics to “estimate the benefits, costs, and economy-wide GHG emission reductions associated with pathways to achieving the Climate Act’s GHG emission limits and carbon neutrality targets”. Integral Analysis implementation strategies have been included in the Scoping Plan over the past few months and at December 20, 2021 Meeting the Climate Action Council, they voted to come up with a Scoping Plan for public comment. The comment period should be at least 120 days, but it has been suggested that the comment period should be extended. When completed, the Plan will be used to amend New York Energy plan and the construction of the rule to implement its provisions will begin.

New York Plan

In short, the plan to reach net-zero by 2050 requires New Yorkers to electrify everything and rely on wind and solar power to produce that electricity. Risky emission reduction strategies from all sectors will be required and individual choices limited. All residential areas would have to be fully electrified and “interactive with the grid” despite safety risks in the event of an ice storm. In the transportation sector, electric vehicles will be required with mileage limits and zoning changes to discourage the use of private vehicles.

New York’s electrical wiring is a complex system that has evolved over the years. It is a highly reliable system using proven hardware and processes. Reliance on unprecedented levels of wind and solar power has not been demonstrated on the scale required. Intermittent wind and solar energy storage system technology has not been tested for the proposed use. Important reliable source for winter lull does not exist. All of this makes it a far-fetched plan and is likely to end in a reliability crisis.

The Climate Act greenhouse gas emission target is not defined or based on cost feasibility. Net direct social costs range from $310 to $290 billion but no cost estimates for consumers have been published. The scoping plan states that the social benefits outweigh the costs; however, social benefits do not reduce direct costs to consumers.

As the Climate Act eliminates New York’s greenhouse gas emissions, the impact on global warming will be immeasurable. The projected global warming impact of removing New York’s emissions is only 0.01°C by 2100. More importantly, New York’s emissions will be negated within a few days. months by countries in the developing world building their energy systems with reliable and affordable fossil fuels. It is immoral to deny the benefits of using such fuels in those countries.

The Climate Act takes into account only the lifecycle costs of fossil fuels and the impacts on the environment while ignoring the lifecycle impacts of wind, solar and energy storage technologies. Those “zero-emissions” resources may have zero emissions when generating electricity, but the volume of materials needed to access wind and solar energy is thin and the rare earth elements needed for such technologies are certainly not. certainly have an impact on the environment when mining and handling. The large number of wind turbines and solar panels will also generate a large amount of waste when they are decommissioned. Furthermore, the cumulative environmental impact of thousands of wind turbines and square miles of solar panels cannot be compared with the environmental impact of current fossil fuel technology. Solar power is being developed now without any limitation on the loss of main arable land. Finally, it is unreasonable to expect that there will be any changes to the environmental impacts of climate change because New York’s effect on global warming is too small to measure.

React

Most New Yorkers don’t know that the Climate Act exists. Given the persistently biased coverage of impending and catastrophic climate change impacts, many can agree that something needs to be done. Unfortunately, the bottom line is that we don’t have today’s technology to meet the Climate Act’s ambitions and schedules and maintain current reliability and affordability standards. Given the foregoing, I think New Yorkers will agree with me that the State should rethink the goals and timeline of the law.

According to the press release:

“The release of the Draft Scoping Plan, available at New York State Climate Act website (leaving DEC’s website), begins a 120-day public comment period commencing January 1, 2022. New Yorkers are encouraged to submit comments via online public comment form, by email at [email protected], and by U.S. mail to Note: Comments on Draft Scope Plan, NYSERDA, 17 Columbia Circle, Albany, NY 12203-6399. The public comment phase will also include at least six Statewide public hearings. Details and information on how to participate in the public hearings will be announced in early 2022.”

To raise awareness, please notify any New Yorkers you know that the public comment process has begun. The other side of the story is at Citizens’ Guide to the Climate Act. For example, an annotated version of the New York Plan summary document above is included to provide a backup copy of that document.

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Roger Caiazza blogs about environmental and energy issues in New York at New York’s Pragmatic Environmentalist. This represents his opinion and not the opinion of any of his previous employers or any other company he is affiliated with.



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