By Jeff Jones, ������ý

More than 60 legislators, legislative staff, ������ý members and the organization’s staff gathered in the Albany Room Tuesday morning March 5 for the ������ý annual legislative breakfast. Headlined It’s Electric! Transmission Planning to Meet our Climate Goals, six featured speakers addressed key aspects of the historic transition taking place in New York’s electric generation system. In various ways, speakers addressed the progress taking place to achieve historic clean energy goals, and the on-going issue of how to get clean energy from diversified sources to the state’s heavily populated and industrialized areas.

Kicking off the morning session, ������ý Interim Executive Director Deb Peck Kelleher highlighted the state’s “high climate goals,” and pointed to the investments needed to achieve them. For ������ý, a focus of the event was support for Gov. Hochul’s proposed Renewable Action Through Project Interconnection and Development Act (RAPID), introduced as part of her Transportation and Environment Budget Article VII bill. When passed, the RAPID Act will transfer the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) from its current home in the Department of State to the Department of Public Service (DPS). The act will allow ORES to grant siting permits for transmission projects and require the Public Service Commission (PSC) to open a proceeding on the timely interconnection of distributed energy resources to the electrical grid.

Jessica Waldorf, DPS chief of staff and director of policy implementation keynoted steps being taken, outlined the history of related PSC decision-making and referred to development of the next stage transmission system and the “vital backbone” needed for success. Waldorf highlighted the fact that without the necessary upgrades, not all the permitted renewable energy projects will be able to reach their full potential. The RAPID Act’s goal of integrating these components will lead to “one-stop shopping” for renewable energy developers, she said.

Speaking from the perspective of disadvantaged communities, Eric Walker, energy justice senior policy manager for Harlem-based WeAct for Environmental Justice, supported the need for more efficiency in development and transmission. But Walker noted that concerns for those most impacted by the climate crisis must be at the center of any planning. Don’t forget, Walker noted, that as many as 1500 New Yorkers lose their lives annually from exposure to pollution caused by fossil fuel generation. This is particularly a problem in New York City communities hosting peaker plants whose elimination should be a primary goal for the state. “Reliability is a problem,” he agreed, “but it is solvable.”

IBEW Local 1249 President Henry Westbrook represents the workforce actively engaged in building the energy transmission system. His union’s apprenticeship program currently has a waiting list of 300 applicants, many of who hope to be laying the underground wires for the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) starting in April when Spring weather opens a new construction season. When completed, projected for 2026, CHPE will bring hydropower to New York City. 

The morning’s other speakers included Andrew Williams, deputy state policy director of the New York League of Conservation Voters and Vanessa Fajans-Turner, executive director of Environmental Advocates.