Opinion
By NOAH SHAW
While I was general counsel of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), I had the privilege of contributing to the multiple rounds of drafting and negotiation that culminated in New York State’s groundbreaking climate legislation – the law that ultimately became known as the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), and which Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed this past summer. We spent countless hours and late nights with the state’s clean energy brain trust deep-diving into the law’s implications and possibilities, drafting and redrafting to ensure both boldness and the art of the possible. The law’s nation-leading ambition gives me hope for our state and as a model for others around the world. But, closer to home, and as a kid from Stony Creek, in Warren County, with deep roots inside the Adirondack Park’s blue line, the question of how the new law would affect the place I grew up and the people who live there loomed large.
The CLCPA calls for 100 percent “clean” (read: including nuclear) electricity by 2040, 70 percent “renewable” (read: not including nuclear) electricity by 2030, and an 85 percent across-the-state reduction in all greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels – including not just electricity generation but also transportation, buildings and other sectors. This will return the levels of climate-warming gas emissions to pre-industrial levels.
To get there, the law directs the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to make rules for how to drastically reduce emissions, forms a Climate Action Council to recommend the course, and ensures that disadvantaged communities will not be left behind. The CLCPA also sets the course for a massive build-out of renewable energy: nine gigawatts of offshore wind (about 30 percent of the total electricity needed for all of New York State, the world’s 13th largest economy); six GW of distributed solar (about three times where we are now); and three gigawatts of energy storage. The law’s standards are also spurring major improvements in building efficiency, grid and transmission updates, and electric vehicle adoption.
Five key takeaways
So what does all this mean for the Adirondacks? Here are five takeaways, though more will no doubt emerge in the decades of policymaking that this law kicks off.
First, the CLCPA outlines a so-called “carbon offset” program as a counter-weight to the 15 percent of emissions that may remain after all our other emissions-reducing actions are taken. These will likely come from hard-to-clean-up activities like aviation, agriculture, shipping and heavy industry. New York’s most valuable carbon offset resource, also known as a “sink,” is its forestland. This is good news for the Adirondack Forest Preserve, and potentially for landowners who could be compensated for the value of their “sink,” but no doubt will add a log or two to the fiery debates over the right mix of uses of Adirondack forest.
Second, the CLCPA requires Adirondack representatives and organizations to coordinate and advocate for common interests. A Climate Action Council chaired by the DEC commissioner and president of NYSERDA will recommend ways for the state to reach its emissions reduction goals, which recommendations must then be infused into the following State Energy Plan. The Energy Plan, in turn, has the force of law; that is, all state government agencies are required to ensure that their policies and funding further the goals in that plan. It is therefore paramount that the needs and priorities of the park and its communities be taken into account in this council’s recommendations.
Third, the CLCPA means renewable energy projects are likely coming to the park, and we have to get that right. More and more solar in particular will almost assuredly be slated for inside the blue line as communities demand more clean energy, and the Adirondacks should not miss out on the economic benefits of local project development. This means that the Adirondack Park Agency needs – in close consultation with the state’s experts at NYSERDA and DEC – to implement construction guidelines that make sense, both in terms of getting good projects built and protecting the natural resources that make the Adirondacks so special.
Fourth, the CLCPA added a new piece to the “biomass” puzzle. The CLCPA does not include biomass – that is, burning wood chips to generate electricity – in its definition of renewable energy. That means large-scale biomass facilities won’t get state support in the same way solar and wind do. However, burning wood pellets in high-efficiency boilers for heating homes and businesses is still on the table – and, indeed, may be a cleaner alternative for many Adirondackers who otherwise would be burning oil or propane to stay warm. This question will likely be taken up by the DEC in its regulations to even further reduce emissions. If past is prologue, the discussions about whether “biomass” is a good idea will continue to be heated.
And last, the CLCPA drives home the need to get electric vehicles and charging infrastructure built in the park. For Adirondackers like my mom who drove nearly 40 miles each way to work, and for so many others who rely upon their trucks as essential tools for their trades, vehicles and their costs are paramount considerations in daily life. To reach the CLCPA’s goals, electric cars, trucks and buses have to become the norm. Prices keep coming down and mile ranges keep improving, but the charging infrastructure has to be there. If the state has not soon implemented measures like the multi-state Transportation Climate Initiative’s cap-and-trade program, the Climate Action Council should make recommendations for how to fund this massive infrastructure expansion.
The CLCPA sets bold, as they say, “30,000-foot” goals. And the standards set out in the statute will, in my estimation, improve both our lives and those of the generations to come – even at 5,344-foot (the height of Mount Marcy) and below. But this law is just the beginning of the work needed to slow our climate-destructive practices and preserve places like the Adirondack Park and their economies. The CLCPA provides the trail map, but many of its routes are yet to be scouted and cut. As those pathways are defined through the Climate Action Council, on the DEC’s dockets, and through other forums, the needs and priorities of the Adirondack Park, its land, and its more than 130,000 residents, must be front and center.
Noah Shaw is co-chair of the renewable energy practice at the law firm Hodgson Russ, former general counsel of NYSERDA, and a native of Stony Creek, Warren County. He lives in Ballston Spa.
My comments here are as an Adirondack resident and as a physicist (energy expert).
I’m assuming that Mr. Shaw is a well-intentioned person, but the CCPA is a classic example of virtue signaling.
Note that he correctly said this law came from the “clean energy brain trust” — not a committee of independent scientists. Note also that there was no attendee at these meetings who was speaking for the citizens of NYS.
Since there was no public uprising after the CES was passed, this emboldened the green lobbyists to go further: the CCPA.
What few people know is that an extensive study was done about the CES. It concluded that the cost to NYS residents and businesses was over a TRILLION dollars. Further, the results were so small that they were immeasurable.
The CCPA has built on that dubious foundation to assure even higher costs, with similarly negligible benefits.
Such wasteful legislation is assured when technical legislation is written by lobbyists — who are paid to satisfy the political agendas of their employers.
20 years from now legislators will feign astonishment when it turns out that 1) the costs of the CCPA are enormously higher than projected, 2) the benefits are significantly less than promised, and 3) the unintended consequences are legion.
“And the standards set out in the statute will, in my estimation, improve both our lives and those of the generations to come”.
Been hearing statements like this for decades. It’s time for government and the media to really come “clean”. Wind energy is a miserable failure and has been for 4 decades.
At every level, wind energy has been a corporate fraud on America. With real math, no renewable energy mandates will ever come close to achieving their goals………. And all the wind peddling PTC grabbing swindlers know it.
Never forget, “climate change”, this imperative reason for having wind energy, came about around 25 years after the industry’s first big lies failed miserably. I am old enough to remember these wind energy lies……………..”With these wind turbines it will get us off Middle Eastern oil” and “we will be able to supply all the electricity in the US.”
In the meantime, even with highly exaggerated production numbers, net wind energy still produces less than 1 percent of America’s total energy consumption. Of course, all along the industry and USFWS have been lying about the many thousands of eagles they have been killing.
THEY CALL IT GREEN
Vast swaths of forest are being clear-cut from the rugged, picturesque woods of the townships of Cherry Creek and Charlotte in Chautauqua County.
This is the Cassadaga Wind Project – the first under Cuomo’s Article X energy law.
They call it green. Replacing pristine forest with 37 industrial wind turbines. This is the Cassadaga industrial wind project. Each industrial turbine is made of 900 tons of steel, 2500 tons of concrete and 45 tons of non recyclable plastic (WSJ). Steel is iron ore and carbon created at very high temperatures only achievable by burning gas or coal. Each turbine contains approximately 2000 pounds of Rare Earths per MW.
The NY Independent System Operator says that an upgrade of the NY electrical grid would garner 30% more electricity from already existing power sources. NYISO also states,” Inland wind sites in NY …effective capacities, … are about 10%, due to both the seasonal and daily patterns of the wind generation being largely ‘out of phase’ with the NYISO load patterns.” Why waste billions to produce so little power?
Multiple studies show that there are negative health impacts from industrial wind turbine created infrasound (below the audible range). Studies also show a wind turbine host community will experience an annual net economic loss from a wind project.
The NYS Constitution requires: ”local officials protect the health, safety, and welfare of the community.“ No amount of money can replace the quality of life that is being destroyed by the scam known as wind energy.
Noah Shaw…..Partner & Co-Chair of Renewable Energy Practice at Hodgson Russ LLP
Just thought everyone would like to know
so noah shaw develops this plan THAT WILL DO ABSOLUTELY ZERO as far as anything “climate” (in the sense of temps) and then leaves his position (or at the same time while developing this plan) to work as:
Noah C. Shaw
Partner & Co-Chair of Renewable Energy Practice at Hodgson Russ LLP
Ballston Spa, New York
seems a bit self serving, NO?
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/31/us-wind-energy-capacity-now-over-100-gigawatts-says-new-report.html
In 2018, utility-scale facilities in the U.S. produced 4,171 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, with roughly 64% of this generation coming from fossil fuels. Wind produced 273 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, or 6.5% of the total.