New York officials on Monday discussed recently proposed statewide greenhouse gas limits of 60% and 15% of 1990 emissions for 2030 and 2050, respectively.

The new methodology for estimating the emissions in 1990, as set out by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, include upstream emissions in the calculation, meaning the baseline increased by 70%, Jared Snyder, deputy commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), told the New York State Climate Action Council (CAC).

“It increases the starting point for calculating those 40% and 85% emission reductions,” Snyder said. Statewide GHG emissions in 1990 totaled 401.38 MMT of carbon dioxide equivalent, which under the proposed rule translates into 240.83 MMT allowed a decade from now, and 60.21 MMT at midcentury.

The CLCPA directs the DEC to set greenhouse gases on a common scale using the CO2e metric and the 20-year global warming potential of each gas, as derived from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In calculating the proposed limits, the DEC interpreted the statute as focusing on gross emissions, Snyder said.

Administrative Law Judge Molly T. McBride will conduct two public comment hearing webinars for the proposed rule on Oct. 20, and public comments will be accepted by the DEC until Oct. 27.

CAC’s Role

CAC member Robert Howarth, Cornell University professor of ecology and environmental biology, brought up the question of the council’s role in drafting the proposed emissions limits.

“My reading of the CLCPA says that the DEC and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, in consultation with the Climate Action Council, will develop these guidelines,” Howarth said. “I appreciate that I as an individual have been able to talk to you [Snyder] and staff, and I will certainly give written comment in the hearing, but so far I haven’t seen any real role for the CAC here other than the fact that we are getting these briefings.”

On the quantification of methane emissions, Howarth said he had just recently published a peer-reviewed paper on the topic. He said he believed the DEC team did a better job in some parts, but that he did better on others, and that there should be a way to reconcile those differences.

“Specifically, I very strongly believe that we should use a top-down approach when we can … for the 1990 baseline,” Howarth said. “What is the role for the council here? What does it mean for these numbers to be developed in consultation with the council?”

Snyder replied that the DEC consults with council members and considers their input, but that any rulemaking decision has to be based on the record. He encouraged anyone interested to submit written comments.

“Our understanding of the actual emissions, particularly for methane, is a rapidly developing field in the scientific community, and my concern is whether we are effectively carving in stone the emissions limits at the end of October … so the opportunity for input is relatively urgent,” said Paul Shepson, dean of the College of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University.

He asked, for example, how the DEC would respond if at some point in the future the scientific community’s understanding of 1990 emissions changes dramatically.

“The limits we establish now are not necessarily written in stone forever,” Snyder said. “If there are further developments that cause us to question the accuracy of those emission limits, there is nothing to prevent us from undertaking another rulemaking to amend them.”

Just Representation

Meeting for the second time this summer, the CAC also approved member rosters for a Just Transition Working Group and six advisory panels that will collectively prepare a scoping plan by next fall for the council’s mission to help the state achieve its clean energy and climate agenda. (See NY Climate Action Council Looks at Deep Decarbonization.)

The panels include representatives from public, private, academic, environmental and community groups and cover six different economic sectors: agriculture and forestry; energy-intensive and trade-exposed industries; housing and energy efficiency; land use and local government; power generation; and transportation.

“Two of the most controversial and important issues with renewables are connected with agriculture and community acceptance and support of renewables,” said Anne Reynolds, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York. “I would just plant the seed that if it’s decided that the agriculture and forestry panel is going to tackle the issue of solar interacting with ag-land, then there should be a representative of the solar industry in that group, and the same with land use and local government.”

Gavin Donohue, president and CEO of the Independent Power Producers of New York, said he was surprised and disappointed that the power generation panel had no utility representatives, as the statute says the panel should include regulated industries.

“You can’t generate electricity and not have a utility deliver it to its customers,” Donohue said. “And while I see someone from National Grid on the energy-intensive and trade-exposed industries panel … it’s an oversight that the generators are not on that panel.”

Several members of the 22-member CAC emphasized the importance to all its proceedings of public comment, especially from environmental justice communities.

Peter Iwanowicz, executive director of Environmental Advocates of New York, said he was pleased to see representatives of the environmental justice community included on panels. “They fought pretty hard to make sure that the offset program is fairly constrained in [power generation], and I think they’re going to have valuable input.”

Council co-Chair Doreen Harris, acting CEO of NYSERDA, agreed, saying that environmental justice representation throughout the panels is not only important, but significant.

“We want to make sure that the advisory panels’ primary work is to identify recommendations for our consideration through the spring of next year, and then we as a council will integrate the input and consider it as part of the statewide strategy we will be advancing,” Harris said.

Clean energy advocate Raya Salter lauded the representation of environmental justice groups but questioned the lack of local elected officials on a proposed working group to estimate waste management emissions.

“I’m concerned because solid waste management seems a key area for direct stakeholder representation,” Salter said.

Co-Chair and DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said that the council “would certainly entertain” proposals to structure the working group to ensure full public input.