The New York State Energy Planning Board is in the final stages of laying out its recommendations for New York’s energy policy through 2040.
On Monday, it presented an analysis on how feedback in the form of public comment from earlier this year and shifting climate policy in Washington could impact the final product.
Much of the realities laid out in the plan came from a modeling process which factored in multiple scenarios for making progress on the state’s ambitious emissions reduction goals laid out in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The most ambitious — labeled “additional action” — assumes that the state enacts more robust climate policy in the coming years.
Emissions are coming down: currently 14% below the 1990 baseline for the state’s climate goals, which the board attributes to improvements in the transportation and building sectors with some help from the deployment of renewables.
However, New York’s progress on its higher level emissions benchmarks has deteriorated even from the release of the draft plan in July. The state’s objective of a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions across sectors by 2030 had already slipped to 2036 in the case of additional policy action when the draft plan was released.
Doreen Harris, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) president and chair of the State Energy Planning Board, told Spectrum News 1 that goal now stands somewhere between 2037 and 2038 even if the state does take further steps. Harris largely blamed the current lack of federal support from Washington on the climate front for the continued slipping of the state’s progress.
“That’s a delay of approximately two years versus the draft, largely because of these federal headwinds — whether it be the tariffs, tax credit rollbacks, but also generally the ways that commercial uptake of these technologies will be reduced because of it,” she said.
Additionally, the analysis found that achieving net zero emissions by 2050 will require significant additional steps.
While Harris blames Washington, Republicans have long characterized the state’s emissions goals themselves as an unattainable drain on New York’s economy. Gov. Kathy Hochul has acknowledged in recent months cracks in the CLCPA framework and embraced an “all of the above approach” to energy. The state’s climate law promises to be a key issue in the 2026 campaign for governor.
The Hochul administration recently agreed to pause New York’s all electric building mandate as part of a court challenge to the law, and leading Republican candidate U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik has slammed Hochul for what she describes as a disingenuous political flip flop, rather than an acknowledgment that the state’s laws may have been too ambitious or an attempt to ease court-related confusion.
Those close to the process say that the state’s energy plan analysis wrapped up before the pause and so it was not factored in, but because it is pending a final decision it may not have a significant impact on long term projections anyway.
Hochul’s push for “all of the above” has included an acknowledgment that that natural gas is here to stay at least in the near term. It also includes dabbling nuclear power, and Harris said multiple options for deployment are explored in the draft beyond the one-gigawatt facility Hochul announced earlier this year, ranging from more than two gigawatts to three.
“When we look at nuclear relative to alternative sources of generation it emerges as a real bright spot for our state not only from a cost perspective, but a reliability perspective and an economic growth perspective as well,” she said.
The energy plan is due by the end of the year and is expected to be finalized and voted on in the coming days.