{"id":417431,"date":"2025-12-16T19:50:55","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T18:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=417431"},"modified":"2025-12-16T22:05:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T21:05:54","slug":"new-york-must-reconsider-the-climate-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=417431","title":{"rendered":"New York Must Reconsider the Climate Act"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roger Caiazza<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francis Menton and I have been publishing articles about the futility of the New York\u00a0Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act<\/a>\u00a0(Climate Act) for years and recently have been collaborating in several proceedings trying to make our case that the law needs to be reconsidered.\u00a0 In the past few months there have been under-publicized findings by State agencies that support our case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the December 1, 2025, State Energy Planning (SEP) Board meeting<\/a>\u00a0there were presentations that gave overwhelming evidence that implementing the Climate Act as presently written will be unaffordable and the 2030 CLCPA 40% emission reduction target and 70% renewable energy in the electric system mandate will not be achieved.\u00a0 I think that if this information gets widespread coverage there will be a public outcry that may force the Governor and the Legislature to consider changes to the law.\u00a0 I prepared a\u00a0press release<\/a>\u00a0that I distributed to various New York press outlets describing these results.\u00a0\u00a0 This is a summary of a\u00a0long, detailed post<\/a>\u00a0on my blog that documents the points made in the press release.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent Court Decision<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Oct. 24, 2025, there was an Albany County New York Supreme Court decision<\/a> ordering the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to issue final Climate Act implementing regulations establishing economy-wide greenhouse gas emission (GHG) limits on or before Feb. 6, 2026 or go to the Legislature and get the Climate Act 2030 GHG reduction mandate schedule changed.   During the legal proceeding the State Attorney General submitted a letter<\/a> that argued that it was inappropriate to implement regulations that would ensure compliance with the 2030 40% reduction in GHG emissions Climate Act mandate because meeting the target is \u201ccurrently infeasible\u201d.  The Judge acknowledged that this argument was relevant but ruled that DEC must promulgate regulations implementing a law even if they have persuasive arguments that it is inappropriate. The Hochul Administration and DEC appealed<\/a> the decision on November 25, 2025 claiming that \u201cit is impossible for the Department to simultaneously comply with both the Court\u2019s order and its substantive statutory obligations.\u201d  I think this just postponed the inevitable reckoning that the schedule in the law must be changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State Energy Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New York State Energy Plan<\/a> is a \u201ccomprehensive roadmap to build a clean, resilient, and affordable energy system for all New Yorkers\u201d. I have provided background information and a list of relevant articles on my Energy Plan page<\/a>. The New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) released the Draft Energy Plan<\/a> last summer.  Stakeholder comments were accepted until early October.  The Energy Planning Board<\/a> has the responsibility to approve the document. The meeting on December 1<\/a> presented results from additional analyses that made the case for reconsideration stronger than the work Menton and I have been doing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Energy Affordability<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An article on the Energy Affordability presentation<\/a> at the meeting documents the future energy cost methodology.  The Pathways Analysis considered eleven different household profiles based on income level, primary household fuel, and location.  The Upstate (north of the immediate New York City suburbs) moderate income (incomes between 80% and 120% of the Area Median Income) household using natural gas profile was used as an example. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I extracted information from two slides presented at the meeting that described projections for four future energy scenarios or \u201cjourneys\u201d.  Those scenarios are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n