The challenge of decarbonizing New York’s economy is compounded by the need to do it in way that balances the needs and views of diverse groups and communities, state energy policy makers heard this week.

“The most unjust [clean energy] transition is the one that doesn’t happen, and that’s what is at greatest risk here,” said Keith Schue, an environmentalist and electrical engineer who opposes the imminent closure of the 2,311-MW Indian Point nuclear plant, which is scheduled to go offline April 30.

Schue made his remarks Monday to the Power Generation Advisory Panel, one of various advisory panels and working groups of the New York State Climate Action Council meeting this week, as they have been all February, to conclude their public comment sessions and refine recommendations they will present to the Council in April. (See NY Public Speaks on Clean Energy Jobs, Costs, Urgency.)

Schue said that “simple math” proves the impossibility of removing so much of New York’s zero-emitting capacity while trying to reach the state’s ambitious clean energy goals of 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040.

“It’s going to be a difficult task to balance everyone’s concerns, but that’s what we are doing,” said New York State Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon, co-chair of the Council’s Just Transition Working Group (JTWG), which met Tuesday.

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) Interim CEO Doreen Harris, serving as JTWG co-chair, said the public comments received so far “focus further on specific issues, including environmental and racial justice, equity in workforce development, [and] addressing a just transition from both the supply and demand side of the energy industry, including via contracting standards.”

Just Transition for Labor

The clean energy transition is also a jobs transition, according to John B. Rhodes, chair of both the state Public Service Commission and the advisory panel, who will be leaving both roles as his term ends in February. “Everything is better when you plan ahead,” he said. “Plan beats no plan.”

“Not to create a hierarchy, but I do think that the people who are currently in the industry need to be considered in many different aspects as to how they are going to make the transition, whether to retirement or to the new energy workforce that we need,” said James Shillito, vice president the Utility Workers Union of America, Local 1-2. “Not the sole focus, but the primary focus.”

Betta Broad, outreach director at New Yorkers for Clean Power, said she’s talked to community college teachers who say they desperately need students to fill their energy-related training programs, “And that’s a real shame when we’re at this exciting moment with this big transition happening.”

The need for students is an important point, said Bill Acker, executive director of the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium (NY-BEST).

“In our work in the energy storage space we’ve talked to a lot of community colleges about starting programs to train the workforce.  And just a reminder: the governor has a goal of 30,000 jobs in energy storage for the state by 2030,” Acker said. “There are a lot of opportunities here, and it’s not just in energy storage. One of the challenges here is coordination of the programs with the industry coming into the state to make the jobs happen, and we don’t yet have enough coordination in that area.”

Susan Gillespie with Citizens for Local Power, in Ulster County, spoke of her experience offering internships to bring young people into the industry. “The secret was not just including minorities but involving them in the plan from the beginning,” she said. “When local groups are involved from the beginning, they have a stake in it.”

Sierra Club state representative Lisa Dix said labor movement partners want clean energy jobs to pay family-supporting wages and ask state officials to find ways to include strong labor standards in all state policies, as they have done with New York’s large-scale renewable portfolio and offshore wind project labor agreements.

On the transition to clean energy, Dix recommended a longer timeline for people to adjust, allowing for retraining programs and lining up funding for related programs.

“When coal was being phased out in New York, one of the things we learned is that there’s really a short time when a fossil fuel plant is planning to go offline, like a 90-day period, and one of the constant areas of feedback was that period was not long enough both in terms of providing a transition for the communities involved and for the workers,” Dix said.

Coordinated funding is important, cutting across “both the community and worker glidepaths,” Dix said, proposing that the worker-community transition be placed under a state entity, whether NYSERDA or some other agency, with dedicated funding for related programs “so that there is a certainty of funding to ensure success.”

Jennifer Schneider, state coordinator for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, agreed with Dix, saying that people “tend to take labor standards for granted and assume when we’re creating a new industry of jobs that the labor standards are going to be part of it, and we just want to make sure that it’s included.”

Power Shift, Needed Tx

The state’s ambitious energy efficiency goal of 185 trillion Btus of end-use energy savings below the 2025 energy-use forecast “is right around the corner,” and planners must look closely at studies of potential future grid demand, Broad said.

NYISO Executive Vice President Emilie Nelson noted that the ISO and some states have conducted studies on future demand.

“Some of the trends that we’re seeing is that shift from summer to winter peaking occurs later in the 2030s, and the estimates vary, and they will inevitably change through time. I certainly support the recommendation that they need to continually be refined,” Nelson said.

The City of New York strongly supports state goals to rapidly decarbonize the electric industry, which harmonizes well with the city’s aggressive actions to reduce greenhouse gases and promote climate equity, said Susanne DesRoches, deputy director for infrastructure and energy at the New York City Mayor’s offices of Resiliency and Sustainability. Her comments centered around four main points.

“First, reducing New York City’s reliance on dirty power plants within the five boroughs is a priority for the state’s just transition,” DesRoches said. “Existing power plants in the city are disproportionately located in communities of color and emit harmful air pollutants that contribute to respiratory ailments and cardiovascular disease, and intensify environmental injustices.”

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act requires that 40% of the benefits of state investments in clean energy reach disadvantaged communities such as those located near the dirtiest oil and gas-fired peaker plants.

The city strongly supports efforts to site renewable power throughout the five boroughs; however, because of limited available space, closure of polluting power plants will not be achieved through construction of in-city renewables alone, she said.

“Second, closing power plants within New York City requires a buildout of transmission to bring clean power to the city and robust energy storage,” she said. “The New York State Reliability Council requires that there is sufficient electric generating capacity within the five boroughs. … And we need state support for unlocking development of energy storage at scale to ensure that wind and solar is available when we need it.”

Third, the cost of the clean energy transition must be spread equitably and not exacerbate the current energy cost burden issues, she said.

“Approximately half a million families in New York City already are considered energy cost burdened, using too much of their income to pay utility bills,” DesRoches said.

“Fourth, our clean energy system must be reliable and resilient to the impacts of climate change. Decarbonization must integrate climate change risk to ensure the resiliency of our utility systems that serve millions of New York residents. The current energy supply crisis in Texas, driven by severe weather, underscores the need for robust resiliency planning across all sources of energy.”