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New York, citing consumer costs, may ease its greenhouse gas accounting rules [1]
['Maxine Joselow']
Date: 2023-04-04
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul backs bill to bring greenhouse gas accounting rules in line with other states
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is backing a proposal to change the state’s method of accounting for greenhouse gas emissions, after state modeling estimated significant cost increases for buying gas and heating homes.
Amid outcries from environmentalists, Hochul has defended the change, saying the current accounting system could saddle consumers with additional costs.
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“It’s clear that cost is an issue that needs more attention and we are working with the legislature to explore options to address it, and we remain committed to securing a state budget that includes the most impactful climate initiatives in recent history,” Hochul spokeswoman Katy Zielinski said in an email.
While the proposal is highly technical, it could undermine the landmark climate law that New York passed in 2019, environmentalists say.
“What appears to be a dorky accounting change is in fact a severe weakening of the climate law,” Pete Sikora, climate and inequality campaigns director for New York Communities for Change, told The Climate 202.
The details
The 2019 climate law, known as the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, requires New York to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and 85 percent by 2050.
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To determine whether a proposed project is consistent with these climate goals, state agencies must account for the harmful effects of the project’s emissions over a 20-year period.
New York is one of only two states that uses the 20-year metric; Maryland is the other.
Under the change backed by Hochul, New York would shift to the 100-year international standard used by other states and the federal government.
The Hochul administration says the current accounting method would burden consumers with higher energy costs under the state’s proposed cap-and-invest program.
Cap-and-invest programs set a limit on overall emissions in a state and require large polluters to purchase “allowances” for their emissions at auctions.
California, Oregon and Washington state have already established cap-and-invest programs. Hochul in January directed New York agencies to begin crafting a similar program.
However, Hochul administration officials fear that large polluters could pass along the compliance costs to consumers. According to their modeling, under the current accounting system, it would cost New Yorkers 61 percent more to buy a gallon of gas and 80 percent more to heat their homes when the cap-and-invest program takes effect.
“When we advance that [cap-and-invest] proposal, we need to look at it through the lens of affordability,” Doreen Harris, president and chief executive of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, told The Climate 202. “And ultimately, this topic of our accounting has a very significant impact on costs.”
Basil Seggos, commissioner of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, said in a joint interview with Harris that the new accounting method would not prevent state agencies from rejecting proposed projects that are incompatible with the climate law’s goals.
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Seggos added that the cap-and-invest program, for which draft regulations are expected this summer, will have benefits that outweigh the costs.
“No matter what accounting system we use, there is still that big net benefit,” he said. “What we’re concerned about now is the short-term cost on consumers.”
The view from environmentalists
But critics say the state’s current approach more accurately reflects the harmful effects of methane, a potent greenhouse gas and the main component of natural gas. During its first 20 years in the atmosphere, methane traps more than 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide.
“This change would make methane emissions appear much less damaging than they actually are,” Shiv Soin, co-executive director of TREEage, a youth-led environmental group based in New York City, told The Climate 202.
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New York State Senate Energy Committee Chair Kevin Parker (D), who proposed the change in a bill last week as part of negotiations over the state’s budget, did not respond to a request for comment.
The view from gas utilities
National Grid, the biggest electric and natural gas utility in New York, has also called for the state to align its accounting method with international standards.
“Accounting methods should be standardized across our state and federal jurisdictions, and they should be as consistent as possible with international standards,” the utility wrote in a report last year.
Zielinski, the Hochul spokeswoman, said the governor has not discussed the issue with any representatives of the gas industry, including any National Grid officials.
National Grid spokeswoman Karen Young said in an email that the utility has not taken a position on the accounting proposal.
The budget and building electrification
Despite their disagreement over the accounting method, Hochul and environmentalists have both supported a ban on fossil fuel appliances in new buildings. Such a ban is expected to be included in the state budget for fiscal 2024.
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Hochul in January endorsed banning fossil fuel appliances in new buildings by 2025 for single-family homes and by 2028 for larger or commercial buildings.
If New York bans fossil fuels in new buildings, it would become the first state to do so legislatively. (California and Washington state have encouraged electrification through updates to their building codes.)
The New York state legislature was originally due to pass the budget last weekend but encountered several delays.
Lawmakers are now expected to pass the budget, including the ban, later this month after taking a break for Easter and Passover.
Pressure points
Exclusive: White House to hold meeting with heat pump manufacturers
The White House on Tuesday will host a first-of-its-kind roundtable with 17 of the nation’s largest heat pump manufacturers and distributors, according to details shared exclusively with the Climate 202.
Participants will discuss how to overcome supply chain roadblocks, enhance workforce development and broaden consumer education and adoption, said a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview plans that are not yet public.
Officials including White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi, White House senior adviser John D. Podesta and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will reaffirm the administration’s commitment to investing in manufacturing capacity and supporting deployment of heat pumps, including through the tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act, the person said.
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“Heat pumps are a pro-consumer technology that meets the moment by harnessing clean electricity to cut utility bills,” Zaidi said in a statement. “By deploying the Defense Production Act, offering consumer incentives, and mobilizing private capital, President Biden is driving a massive expansion in heat pumps stamped ‘Made in America.’”
The event comes as American consumers bought more heat pumps than gas furnaces last year, according to data from the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute.
Biden administration announces investments in ‘energy communities’
The Biden administration on Tuesday announced new investments in “energy communities,” or places that have historically relied on fossil fuels to power their economies.
The investments include:
The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service will release guidance on how developers of clean-energy projects can claim billions of dollars in “bonus” tax credits for projects in energy communities under the Inflation Reduction Act .
Treasury and IRS will partner with the Interagency Working Group on Energy Communities to provide a searchable mapping tool that helps identify areas that may be eligible for the bonus credits.
The Energy Department will allocate $450 million from the bipartisan infrastructure law to advance renewable projects on lands that have been used for coal mining, potentially creating as much as 90 gigawatts of clean energy — enough to power about 30 million homes — across nearly 1.5 million acres.
He wrote the book on crushing ‘wokeism.’ Now he’s running for president.
Vivek Ramaswamy is mounting a long-shot bid for the Republican presidential nomination, running on a platform of ridding corporate boardrooms of social causes including the battle against climate change, The Washington Post’s Steven Mufson reports.
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Ramaswamy, the author of “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam,” is primarily pushing to stop big corporations from using environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, considerations to measure their performance.
In an interview, Ramaswamy said he sees global warming as “not entirely bad.” He added that the goal of limiting carbon emissions is “flawed” and that “people should be proud to live a high-carbon lifestyle.” Although Ramaswamy said he is “not a climate denier,” these sentiments contradict the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change.
Agency alert
A wet winter won’t stave off the Colorado River’s water cuts
Although parts of the American West have seen rare relief from a prolonged drought this year, it is not enough to revive major reservoirs along the Colorado River that are at dangerous levels, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said Monday, The Post’s Joshua Partlow reports.
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Touton’s comments kicked off a three-day trip with a bipartisan group of senators pushing for an agreement among the seven Colorado River basin states on unprecedented cuts to water usage. The trip comes as negotiations over the cuts have stalled, with California proposing its own plan and the other six states — Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah — offering another.
“The future of the American West is at stake,” said Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.), who joined the trip along with Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Cynthia M. Lummis (R-Wyo.). Speaking at a news conference Monday in Grand Junction, Colo., the senators said they are optimistic the states will soon reach a deal, but that the longer the dispute drags on, the more the river could be irreversibly damaged.
In the atmosphere
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[1] Url:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/04/new-york-citing-consumer-costs-may-ease-its-greenhouse-gas-accounting-rules/
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