By Kathleen Gasperini

To deliver a recap of 2020, a year without measure, is a daunting task. 2020 will be most notable for the horror of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic (hopefully!) with New York the initial epicenter.. There was the surfacing of brutal racial injustices. At the same time, our democracy came under question, apocalyptic fires burned throughout the West, and all the while, the global climate change clock ticked-down louder and faster.   

But like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, we’ve also seen the rise of new heroes, like our front-line health care workers. And we’ve many firsts, like the first woman elected to the office of the Vice President - who is also the daughter of an immigrant Jamaican father and Indian mother.

In the world of ������ý, we witnessed New York release the largest-ever renewable energy solicitation, including the State doubling down on efforts to attract a new industry in offshore wind. We saw the passage of the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act creating the new and new expedited project permitting; a new planning lens for transmission; and NYSERDA’s new Build-Ready Program.

Then, we say a establishing the 70% by 2030 mandate and the procurement schedule to achieve that; another authorizing the one-time option to modify certain Tier 1 agreements from Fixed REC to Index REC; a authorizing energy efficiency and building electrification initiatives driving nearly $2 billion in efficiency activities and investments across the State; a new deploying over 50,000 charging stations. And, NY-Sun funded to achieve 6000 MW of distributed solar.

Also in this busy year, New York embarked on an accelerating planning effort to achieve the goals of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The new Climate Action Council, which includes ACE’s Executive Director Anne Reynolds, has spawned super-active panels and work groups that are furiously working to develop NY’s climate action plan.

While clearly these accomplishments took many organizations working in concert together, we are proud of the work that ������ý has done to help lead the way with such achievements. Below we list some of the activities that kept us busy in 2021.

2020 will go down in history as one of the worst, and we are not sad to see it end. But in 2021, you can bet that ������ý will work hard to make sure progress on renewable energy continues on all fronts! 

We wish you peaceful and healthy holidays, and here is to a happier new year.  

-- The ������ý Team

More specifically, here’s a run-down of ������ý’s 2020 deliverables:

Advocacy for Large Scale Renewables:

• January – April, numerous meetings, letters, petitions, and events in support of reform of wind and solar permitting, culminating in the April 1 passage of the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Growth Act.

• May 4:  Comments in Response to Petition Regarding a Clean Energy Standard Competitive Tier 2 Program for Baseline Renewable Generation

• —  May 12: Comments in Response to Regulations Implementing Article 10 of the Public Service Law – Definitions; Proposed Action: Amendment of Parts 1000 and 1001 of Title 16 NYCRR

• —  July 24:  Comments to PSC on White Paper on CES Procurements to Implement CLCPA

• —  Summer: Presentations on Contract Modification, several iterations 

• —  Aug 24: Comments on NYSERDA Petition on Build-Ready Program  

• —  Aug 31: Final comments on the 70% x 2030 CES White Paper

• —  Oct 13: Comments on NYSERDA’s Contract Conversion Petition

• —  October 16: Comments on equity related strategies for the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI)

• —  November 23: Letter to launch the “NY for TCI” campaign

• —  Dec. 1: Comments voicing opposition to a Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) proposal (  ).

• —  Dec. 8: Comments on the ORES’s proposed regulations

• —  Dec. 8: Comments on DEC’s  to be used by State agencies as required by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). 

• —  Dec. 15: Comments on the utility draft tariff leaves and draft statements on their implementation of the newly established Customer Benefit Contribution (CBC) charge. 

������ý Priorities at the NYISO: Carbon Pricing, Transmission Planning, Interconnection Process, Capacity Market

• —  Jan, Feb, March 2020 :  Advocacy on transmission elements of Renewable Energy Growth Act

• —  March 17: Comments on NYISO Proposal to FERC for renewables exemption for BSM

• —  April 28: Response to FERC re: NYISO filing on BSM compliance

• —  May 4: Support for Petition of Nextera Energy Transmission at PSC

• —  June 30: Letter to NYISO requesting new regulatory milestone to enter interconnection class year

• —  Aug 21: Comments to NYS PSC on resource adequacy

• —  Aug 28: Comments to FERC on Modernizing the Grid (w/ Grid Advancement Coalition)

• —  Sept 14: Comments on proposed criteria for priority transmission projects and two NYPA proposed projects

• —  Nov. 24: Two filings to the FERC on Proposed Policy Statement on Carbon Pricing
  Second, Clean Energy Parties including ACENY filed ain the 206 complaint case filed by Cricket Valley and Empire Generation requesting FERC to impose BSM on a statewide basis in the NYISO capacity market

Advocacy for Distributed Energy Resources @ PSC (Often filed in partnership with AEE, SEIA, and/or NYSEIA)

• — Nov 25, 2019:  Preliminary Comments on Utility Marginal Cost of Service Studies

• —  Feb 10:  Comments on NYSERDA Petition for Additional Funding for NY-Sun Program

• —  Feb 24:  Comments on Rate Design for Mass Market Net Metering Successor Tariff

• —  April 9: Letter to Chair Rhodes on Granting Flexibility to Utility Energy Efficiency Program due to COVID-19

• —  April 27: Comments on Staff White paper Regarding Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment and Infrastructure detailing a proposed statewide Make Ready Program

• —  May: Letter to the NY Forward Task Force on re-opening economy and energy efficiency

• —  July 13:  Comments on effects of COVID19 on Utility Services

• —  Aug 24: Comments to NYS PSC on two data white papers

• —  Aug 28:  Reply Comments to PSC in proceeding on COVID-19 Effects on Utility Service

Offshore Wind Advocacy:

• — NYOWA Comments and Advocacy on NYSERDA Petition for next solicitation

• —  July 24: NYOWA Comments to PSC on White Paper on CES Procurements to Implement CLCPA

• —  July 24: NYOWA & ������ý Comments to PSC on Draft SGEIS on CLCPA

• —  July 24: NYOWA Comments to DOI BOEM on Vineyard Wind 1

• —Event with Congresswoman Rice and State Senator Kaminsky calling for federal designation and leasing of new Wind Energy Areas