When I started this blog in the Fall of 2017, I wrote that I was doing posts on New York’s energy policies because I was convinced that this whole thing is going to end as an expensive boondoggle and drive electricity prices in particular and energy prices in general significantly higher. The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act exacerbates these impacts to cover the entire energy system.
If I had the time or ambition, it would probably be best to combine this website with the Pragmatic Environmentalist of New York website. For the time being however, this website will be where I maintain links to general energy and climate issues.
In July 2019 Governor Cuomo signed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act) which is described as the “most aggressive climate law in the United States”. Unfortunately, the politicians who authored and supported the law didn’t bother to include a feasibility study before picking the emission reduction and renewable energy targets. The following pages document issues that should have been considered.
The Climate Act portion of the website has two main components. The first is my Citizen’s Guide to the Climate Act that summarizes New York’s Climate Act impacts on New York’s future. This is intended to address the fact that many of my articles at the Pragmatic Environmentalist of New York website are overly technical. I also included pages that address specific components of the Climate Act transition.
Climate Act Citizens Guide Pages
- Layman Guide to the Climate Act – A simple, short summary of the Climate Act
- Annotated Guide to the Climate Act – Provides more detailed overview information about specific aspects of the Climate Act
- Climate Act Overview – Details and documentation about the law itself
- Implementation Strategy Risks and Effects on Personal Choice – The strategies to reduce emissions have risks to safety and will require changes to personal lifestyles
- Implementation Strategy Risks and Effects
- Reliability Risks – The unprecedented rush to an electric system to an electric system dependent upon wind, solar, and energy storage poses risks to reliability and affordability
- Costs and Benefits – Description of the proposed costs and alleged benefits
- Effect on Global Warming – Describes the impacts of NY policies on global warming itself
- Zero-emissions Environmental Impacts – Information on the environmental impacts of wind, solar, and energy storage
- What You Can Do – Explanation of how the public can comment on the Climate Act
- References – Further reading and backup materials
Background Information on specific energy topics
- Electric vehicle issues – Problems with electric vehicles
- Green energy costs – What are the likely costs?
- Solar energy issues – Problems with solar energy
- Wind energy issues – Problems with wind energy
- Electric heating issues – What about heat pumps
- Renewable energy feasibility – Overview summaries
- Energy storage issues – What can be done when wind and solar are not available
- Climate change impacts
- Renewable energy systems – Background articles describing wind and solar implementation
- “Clean” energy environmental issues – Dark side of clean energy
- Hydrogen economy issues – Problems with hydrogen as an energy source
Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) was Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s comprehensive energy strategy for New York. This is a forum to present the inconvenient unpublicized or missing pieces of New York State’s REV policy: implementation plan, costs and impacts. Although this has been replaced by the Climate Act the information here is still relevant. I believe that the majority of New York citizens are unaware of the potential impacts of the Climate Act and do not have the time for research so this site will try to provide information necessary for New Yorkers to understand the ramifications of New York’s energy policies.
This portion of the website is organized into the following sections:
- Reforming the Energy Vision – Summary of the program
- Regulatory Agencies – Describes the different NYS organizations that are involved with REV
- Plan Programs – In order to implement REV multiple programs have been proposed
- Background – Descriptions of the electric system
- Justification – Description of the rationale for REV
- History – History of the New York State programs that espouse the 80 by 50 goal.
- REV Inconvenient Facts – Descriptions of inconvenient problems in REV
Disclaimer: Before retirement from the electric generating industry, I was actively analyzing energy and air quality regulations that could affect company operations. The opinions expressed in this post do not reflect the position of any of my previous employers or any other company I have been associated with, these comments are mine alone.
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New York Energy Policies 