The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority is getting a funding boost to hire more people as it administers the state’s Clean Energy Standard program, but not as large a hike as it had sought.
The state Public Service Commission on Thursday approved a $33.4 million administrative budget for NYSERDA for next year. The agency will use part of the increase to hire more people to manage the renewable energy contracts that are continuing to increase in number and complexity in the wake of the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
The budget for 2022 is $30.2 million.
NYSERDA had sought $38.8 million for 2023 and authorization to add 19 full-time equivalents to the 22.5 FTEs currently working on CES administration. Its petition drew supportive comments from several clean energy and environmental advocacy groups and no comments in opposition.
However, Department of Public Service staff pared back the request, eliminating five of the prospective hires and $4.1 million in spending on technical services. Staff said the reduced budget request would strike a balance between the ratepayers who are footing the bill and the growing demands placed on NYSERDA.
PSC Chair Rory Christian said the CES is the tool by which New York will reach its statutory requirements for decreasing emissions and increasing renewable energy deployments.
“What we see here today highlights how far we’ve come since 2016,” he said. “Adoption of the NYSERDA administrative budget today will enable the continued growth of renewable generation in New York state.”
Commissioner Tracey A. Edwards went a step further, saying that she would have supported the original $38.4 million and that the PSC should not micromanage NYSERDA.
“We can cut the legs off and really make sure that this doesn’t work by not giving it proper funding,” she said.
Commissioner John B. Howard came at the issue from a different angle. NYSERDA is not funded through the state budget process and its staff are not subject to civil service requirements, nor represented by a union, he said. The PSC provides the primary oversight and needs to do a better job of it, he said.
“Given that NYSERDA will issue hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of contracts as part of the CLCPA mandates, it is time for greater oversight of NYSERDA, not just from DPS, but I believe from the comptroller’s office as well,” Howard said.
He clarified he was not criticizing NYSERDA but calling for transparency, because New Yorkers footing the bill for decarbonization need to see the money being spent wisely. Having said that, he voted in favor of the budget, because the increases would be covered by NYSERDA’s surplus funds, rather than new money from ratepayers, he said.
The lone vote against the budget came from Commissioner Diane Burman, who said the cuts to the original budget request were not deep enough and there was not sufficient explanation of the benefits to the ratepayers who fund NYSERDA.
