Shades of Green

The failure to secure supply from interstate pipelines that meet federal, state and local requirements, has resulted in Con Edison issuing a moratorium on March 15, 2019. As such, the utility will no longer be accepting applications for new natural gas connections in most of their Westchester service area until they can align demand with available supply. This will hurt economic development in Westchester and prevents homeowners and businesses from achieving savings through transitioning from higher cost and dirtier oil to lower cost and more environmentally friendly natural gas. National Grid recently announced that they will begin notifying dozens of midsize companies that apply for new natural-gas service that it won’t be able to supply them with firm gas service if a new undersea pipeline fails to win state approval. A potential moratorium by National Grid would also negatively impact the proposed Belmont Park redevelopment in Nassau County.

GHG emissions in New York State declined 8.4% from 1990 to 2015, largely driven by a 40% reduction in the electric sector. The electric sector changes resulted primarily from improvements in the operation of nuclear power plants, new power plants that primarily burn natural gas, and the near total elimination of coal.

New York State needs to work with utilities to ensure an adequate supply of natural gas to achieve further environmental benefits that natural gas produces and to meet the growing demands of residents and businesses.

The environmental goals pursued by New York State are ambitious and clearly defined paths to achieve their objectives are not readily evident. The State is committed to the principles contained in the Paris climate accord that seeks limiting temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Limiting the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is key to this goal and the State is committed to an 80 percent reduction by 2050. Underlying the target is the elimination of nearly all fossil fuels and a substantial increase of electrification, which is perceived as environmentally friendly, for nearly all energy end-use applications.

While end-use electric applications do not produce GHG emissions, there is a need to consider the tradeoff between reduced GHG emissions from end uses against increased emissions from replacement power sources. Non-hydroelectric renewable resources account for only 5 percent of electricity generation resources. Natural gas and nuclear power, which produces no GHG emissions, account for over 70 percent of electricity generation in New York. The State is planning to shut down two nuclear units at the Indian Point Energy Center in 2020 and 2021 and three of the remaining four nuclear stations have operating licenses that will expire between 2029 and 2034.

In order to achieve deep decarbonization, the state’s electric grid will need to dramatically increase its level of non-hydroelectric renewable resources. To this end, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) recently released a solicitation for the development of 2,400 megawatts of offshore wind (OSW) energy. Currently, the only signed

agreement is the Long Island Power Authority’s agreement with Deepwater Wind for 90 megawatts of OSW energy, which has a reported cost of 16¢ per kilowatt-hour, approximately double the price of power from its other sources.

Transitioning to renewable sources of energy will take time and money. In the interim, New York State should prioritize the most cost-efficient options in terms of incremental carbon reduction per dollar spent, and work with utilities to improve supplies of natural gas to benefit residents and businesses and to keep New York economically competitive. Keeping adequate supplies of natural gas and pursuing renewable energy resources are not mutually exclusive and can be advanced simultaneously.