updated 8/19/2024
NYPA Conferral Process
Under the 2023 RAPID Act the New York Power Authority (NYPA) is being charged with a more prominent role in advancing New York's energy plan. A powerful combination of big environmental organizations and the renewable energy industry rammed the law though based on its frustration with the slow pace of renewable energy development in the state. But I am cautiously hopeful that, in contrast to the boosterism that has up to now marked all other state agencies' approach to decarbonizing electricity, NYPA will prove to be the adult in the room.
An electric grid powered only by wind, solar and batteries does not work. There is no pathway to decarbonization without increasing nuclear power. Nuclear power is an existing technology with a very favorable safety record that produces electricity all the time. It does not need massive new investments for transmission upgrades, backup power (supplied by fossil fuels), and land (mostly forests and farmland). Wind, solar and batteries need all these things, making their costs impossible to bear in the long run. The effort to power electric grids with renewables alone is breaking grids around the country. Society needs reliable zero-emissions electricity, not intermittent electricity that varies with the weather. Extreme weather knocks wind and solar offline, not nuclear.
NYPA's Conferral Process is much appreciated. It appears to be a much more successful effort to reach out to stakeholders in the state's energy transition effort than anything that has come before it. In 2023 NYPA also solicited comments. You can get our 2023 comment letter here.
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