New York State Unlikely To Hit Either 2030 Or 2040 Climate And Energy Goals

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State legislators set a target of a 70 percent renewable-sourced electricity grid by 2030 and a net-zero emissions grid by 2040. But Gov. Kathy Hochul recently announced that the state would not meet these goals, confirming a possibility long feared by local environmentalists. The state is struggling to retire its fossil fuel plants on schedule due to a lack of renewable energy projects coming online to replace them. Changes in market forces over the last five years and inflation due to the pandemic contributed to this, but the problems run deeper.

The current regulatory landscape for renewable energy development means that it can take many years to get a project online. The Trump Administration’s opposition to clean energy, especially offshore wind, has complicated New York’s efforts to meet its climate goals. The looming fear of exceeding the capacity of the electricity grid persists, especially when demand is predicted to increase and there is limited infrastructure to accommodate it.

This came as no surprise to Dennis Elsenbeck, a former member of the state’s Climate Action Council, which developed and voted on the draft scoping plan to meet these climate goals. Elsenbeck has 30 years of experience working at National Grid, a local gas and electric utility, and was one of three members of the 22-person council to vote against the current scoping plan in 2022. “From experience, I know that the transmission system and the distribution system—based on age and the lack of capacity—can’t achieve those types of objectives,” Elsenbeck said. The state has also slowed progress on policies, such as the Cap and Invest program, which would help pay for new climate-friendly infrastructure.

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In 2023, the Build Public Renewables Act was included in the annual budget. The policy aimed to empower the state public power authority, the New York Power Authority, to fill in the gaps left by the private sector to meet the state’s energy goals, as defined by its Climate Act. The state needs 15 gigawatts of additional generation capacity to meet its targets. But even with the policy in place, the power authority has fallen short, with just 7 gigawatts planned to be built. Earlier this year, the NYSERDA and the Department of Public Service admitted that they would likely need at least three extra years to meet the 2030 goal.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05082025/new-york-fails-ambitious-climate-targets-utility-bills/