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Politico
4 days ago
- Business
- Politico
Trump could knock NY's climate goals over the edge
New York state was already struggling to meet its aggressive climate targets before President Donald Trump took office. Now it's locked in a showdown with the president and his antagonism toward environmental policies, writes Benjamin Storrow. Within weeks of taking office, Trump targeted a state plan to limit the number of gasoline-powered cars and trucks entering Manhattan. He reversed his decision to cancel a major offshore wind project in exchange for building a pair of natural gas pipelines the state had previously rejected. And that's on top of federal policies, such as killing generous clean energy tax incentives, that will make it harder for New York to go green. 'New York has been a leader on climate and this administration is coming after progressive climate policy,' Raya Salter with the state's Climate Action Council told Ben. 'That's why we need for our state to fight and push harder than ever and be the model that this country and the world needs.' But even without Trump, it's an uphill battle. Only a quarter of the state's electricity is produced with clean power, lagging far behind its goal of 70 percent by 2030. Natural gas companies are challenging the state's ban on gas hookups in new buildings. And New York's climate pollution from transportation remains stubbornly high, continuing to account for 40 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions. Rising energy costs are only complicating matters. While most of the country saw natural gas prices fall in 2024, New York and New England were exceptions. Gas prices in New York increased by 14 percent compared with 2023. That has created a political pressure point for Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who said she is open to new gas pipelines to lower costs for consumers. While Hochul disputes it, Trump contends he secured Hochul's openness to pipelines by agreeing to lift his stop-work order on an offshore wind project. Environmental activists worry the move will further imperil the state's climate targets. 'It's going to be hard to reach the goals if you keep building infrastructure to expand [natural gas] consumption,' said Ira Joseph, a longtime gas analyst and senior research associate at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. Thank goodness it's Friday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to askibell@ Today in POLITICO Energy's podcast: James Bikales breaks down why the auto industry's powerful trade group isn't taking a public position on Republicans' megabill. Power Centers Life after bromance: What's next for DOGE?The very public internet feud between Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk this week has thrown the fate of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency operation into question, write Robin Bravender and Hannah Northey. Trump downplayed the significance of the pair's blowup Thursday evening. But some federal employees are hopeful that DOGE will lose power within the administration after its early push to slash funding and fire employees. The fracas also raises questions about whether Musk's allies who remain in the DOGE operation will stick around, or might leave — or be nudged out — sooner than they had planned. How one climate tech company is hanging onThe bloodbath that Republicans are making of federal incentives for climate projects has stopped — for now — at the border of House Speaker Mike Johnson's district, writes Debra Kahn in Currents, POLITICO's climate column. That's where Heirloom Carbon is planning to build its first commercial-scale plant capable of extracting carbon dioxide from the air, by way of shallow trays of crushed limestone that absorb the planet-warming gas. In Other News Poaching prevention: To save rhinos, conservationists are removing their horns. Smoke knows no boundaries: What Canada's fires mean for the U.S. in the future. Subscriber Zone A showcase of some of our best subscriber content. Trump's mad dash to unleash more mining and burning of 'beautiful clean coal' across the U.S. is running face-first into unfavorable market realities. The Transportation Department formally started the process of rewriting the Biden administration's fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, which it says are legally flawed. Forest Service employees who accepted Trump's offer to resign will still be allowed to take on wildfire assignments this summer, according to a new agency memo. That's it for today, folks. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
E&E News
4 days ago
- Business
- E&E News
New York's climate goals are teetering. Trump could knock them over.
Donald Trump is stress testing New York's climate goals. The Empire State was already struggling to meet its ambitious climate targets before Trump returned to the White House in January. Renewable deployments lagged. Transportation emissions barely budged. And concerns over rising energy bills pushed emission reductions down state leaders' priority list. Trump has only added to those difficulties. The president quickly took aim at a state plan to limit the number of vehicles entering Manhattan after reassuming office. He followed up by temporarily halting construction of an offshore wind project that would connect to the electric grid in Brooklyn. His price for lifting the halt: building a pair of pipelines that the state had previously rejected. Advertisement The result is a showdown over one of the country's most ambitious climate plans. Trump and business interests contend new gas pipelines are needed to lower energy costs, bolster economic growth and help household budgets. One pipeline developer, Williams Cos., recently refiled a permit with federal regulators for an expansion of an existing line and has signaled it may resubmit plans for a second new line. 'The President is unleashing the might of American energy and lowering costs for the American people,' White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement. 'Increasing the flow of U.S. natural gas is vitally important for Americans living in the Northeast, and the President's leadership has successfully driven this critical pipeline to life.' Environmentalist say such moves are folly. Gas already generates roughly half the state's electricity and is the leading heating source for buildings. They maintain that burning more of it will not only blow a hole in the state's climate goals, but in consumers' wallets as well. Trump, a Manhattan real estate magnate, is simply seeking to make an example of his former home state, climate advocates say. 'New York has been a leader on climate and this administration is coming after progressive climate policy,' said Raya Salter, a climate advocate who serves on the state's Climate Action Council. 'That's why we need for our state to fight and push harder than ever and be the model that this country and the world needs.' The seeds of the current conflict were sown during Trump's first term, when New York blocked a pair of pipeline proposals and passed one of the country's most ambitious climate laws. The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which passed in 2019, requires the state to cut emissions 40 percent compared to 1990 levels by 2030 and 85 percent by 2050. As part of its climate efforts, New York committed to generating 70 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2030. New York City enacted a ban on new gas hookups in new large buildings in 2024, a requirement that will extend to all new buildings by 2027. The state passed a new building code with a similar requirement, halting new gas hookups for most large new buildings in 2026 and nearly all new buildings by 2029. But hitting the state's targets would already be difficult, even without Trump's meddling. New York's greenhouse gas emissions were 9 percent below 1990 levels in 2022, according to the state's most recent figures, meaning the state will have to make huge strides to reach a 40 percent reduction by the end of the decade. Only a quarter of the power online today is considered renewable, and the vast majority of that is hydropower. Gas interests have challenged the ban on new hookups in court — and while New York City won a court challenge earlier this year, appeals are expected. Emissions from transportation, New York's largest single source of climate pollution, have hardly moved. In 1990, New York's transportation emissions amounted to 70 million tons of carbon dioxide. In 2022, they were 71 million tons, or about 40 percent of New York's total greenhouse emissions, according to the state's figures. Rising costs New York's difficulty cutting carbon has been compounded by rising energy costs. While most of the U.S. saw natural gas prices fall in 2024, New York and New England were exceptions. Gas prices in New York increased by 14 percent compared to 2023, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's annual state of the markets report. Electricity prices also increased 17 percent in the New York City area, though they remained below their five-year average. Rising costs have become a pressing political issue in Albany. In a sign of the growing political pressure, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, blasted the utility Consolidated Edison in February for proposing an 11 percent increase in electricity rates and a 13 percent increase in gas rates. The difficulty cutting emissions and Hochul's increasing focus on affordability has caused concern among environmentalists, many of whom were already skeptical of the governor's commitment to climate. 'New York has really good climate goals on paper, but the Hochul administration has a long way to go to implement the greenhouse gas commitments the state has already made,' said Judith Enck, who served as EPA Region 2 Administrator in the Obama administration. Those frustrations come with new ones from the Trump administration. The first signs of trouble between the president and his native state came over New York's congestion pricing plan to limit traffic below 60th Street in Manhattan and raise revenue for its ailing public transportation system. Trump rescinded support for the federal program in February, drawing an immediate legal challenge from the state. Last week, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring Trump from ending the program while the case is heard. Congestion pricing is not a climate policy, per se. But its backers say it has the added benefit of reducing emissions. A March paper by researchers at Stanford University estimated it had reduced the emissions rates of vehicles traveling in the city's central business district by 2 to 3 percent. As New York works to reduce traffic, it is also attempting to connect a major offshore wind project to Brooklyn homes. Empire Wind 1, which began offshore construction on its 54 turbines in March, is slated to provide enough electricity to 500,000 homes. Offshore wind is a centerpiece of New York's climate and energy plans. The state has a goal of bringing 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind capacity online by 2035. But its plans have been frustrated by rising interest rates and construction costs, which have forced the state to cancel a series of contracts to buy power from offshore wind developments. Empire Wind 1 is one of two offshore wind projects that would add about 1,700 MW of offshore wind capacity to the state's power grid. But in April, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum halted the project, claiming its permit approval had been rushed by the Biden administration. Hochul lobbied Trump hard to lift the stop work order, saying the project was essential for creating jobs and powering the economy. The president ultimately agreed, saying he did so in exchange for permitting new pipeline capacity into the state. Hochul disputes that, even as she signaled she is open to new pipelines that can demonstrate a need for the gas and meet the state's permitting requirements. Many greens doubt Hochul. 'I think this was a deal with the devil that was unnecessary,' Enck said. She predicted the state would have won if it had challenged the stop-work order in court. 'It is deeply disappointing. Of course we want offshore wind, but not at the price of more fracked gas.' Paul DeMichele, a Hochul spokesperson, said the governor 'is embracing an energy policy of abundance to make electricity more affordable and meet the growing demand of businesses looking to expand here — which includes her recent successful effort to save Empire Wind from the federal government's attempt to shut it down.' But if environmentalists saw a sellout, business interests saw a potentially groundbreaking compromise that could end more than a decade of pipeline fights in the Northeast. An attractive gas market A recent S&P Global Study commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce concluded an additional 0.5 billion cubic feet per day of gas capacity into New York would decrease wholesale gas prices by 17 percent. Williams' Northeast Supply Enhancement project — or NESE — would add 0.4 bcf per day of additional capacity. 'It seems natural to me that we could be arriving at a bargain like this,' said Dan Byers, vice president for policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Energy Institute. 'It's hard to think of a clearer example of a self-inflicted economic pain than blocking pipelines to limit supply of gas to your own citizens.' When Williams' initially proposed NESE in 2017, it struck an agreement to supply a pair of National Grid subsidiaries in the New York City area for heating consumption. Today's push comes at a time when New York is trying to wean itself off gas consumption in buildings. A National Grid spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams contends the additional capacity would not only lower gas prices for consumers, but bolster the reliability of the state's electric grid, which can be strained during the winter months when New York's limited gas pipeline network labors to keep up with heating and power demand. Many gas plants in the state are equipped with oil tanks and switch over to the fuel during periods of cold. Williams has also signaled it plans to revive the Constitution Pipeline project, which would run 127 miles from Pennsylvania toward Albany. 'The NESE and Constitution projects are essential to address persistent natural gas supply constraints in the Northeast, constraints that have led to higher energy costs for consumers and increased reliance on higher-emission fuels like fuel oil,' the company said in a statement. Gas drillers in Pennsylvania view New York and New England as attractive markets because the region boasts some of the highest gas prices in the country, said Ira Joseph, a longtime gas analyst and senior research associate at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. New York's relative proximity is also attractive for Pennsylvania producers who now ship much of their gas to the Gulf Coast, where it is liquefied and exported abroad as LNG, he said. New York's electrification mandates could limit gas demand growth in the future. The question is whether they will cause gas demand in buildings to fall, he said, adding,'the goal of moving pipelines into New York state is not to have gas demand fall.' Consumers would likely benefit in the form of lower prices, but it would likely come at the expense of the state's climate goals, Joseph said. 'It's going to be hard to reach the goals if you keep building infrastructure to expand consumption,' he said.
New Straits Times
21-04-2025
- Politics
- New Straits Times
Anwar stresses collective effort in combating climate change
KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has urged collective action on climate change, saying the responsibility cannot rest solely on the government. "Protecting the environment requires cooperation from all parties, including the private sector, government agencies, and the public." He said this in a Facebook post after chairing the Climate Action Council meeting today. Anwar said the United Kingdom and China have demonstrated the effectiveness of strong climate policies and legislation. He noted that such measures, like Malaysia's proposed National Climate Change Bill (RUUPIN), can generate returns while also addressing the impacts of climate change. Malaysia, he said, will continue refining its policies and legal frameworks to align with the constitution and state powers, ensuring climate action is carried out at all levels. "This is crucial to ensure our continued commitment to the Paris Agreement for a sustainable future." In January, Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said his ministry was finalising RUUPIN and will soon present it to Parliament. Nik Nazmi added that the ministry had engaged in discussions with state governments and stakeholders to ensure the bill is comprehensive and relevant. He said the minister had also consulted civil society, non-governmental organisations, businesses and the public.
