Expert Roundtable: Energy

GEORGE MAZIARZ
Senate Energy Committee Chairman

Q: What are your thoughts on the new NYSERDA solar study, which called for a “continued investment in the steady and measured growth and deployment” of solar photovoltaic panels?

GM: After a cursory review of it, I was a little bit surprised. They weren’t commenting on the positives or negatives of it, but clearly they’re saying that it could have a very negative impact on rates. I think we need to be careful going forward, but I sort of like the governor’s approach within the state budget, which is to offer tax credits for solar development.

Q: The state’s review of hydrofracking has been slowed by a deluge of public comments. Is the state moving too fast or too slow on this?

GM: I think the Department of Environmental Conservation has to go through these comments and continue their due diligence. If 60,000 people took the opportunity to comment on it, I think that their comments should be considered. That probably will extend it out some more. That’s why we have that process.

Q: Gov. Andrew Cuomo has made significant progress with the passage of Article X and other measures, and he’s pushing for more this year. However, some still think the state needs a more comprehensive energy plan.

GM: I’ll tell you, I’m excited about working with the governor on it. Last year was the most successful year on energy policy, maybe in the history of the state. When you look at Article X, on-bill financing, net metering, Recharge New York, almost all of those pieces of policy legislation had been around for years. And this governor really drove it. I feel in some respects it all got overshadowed by other issues. But last year was hugely successful on energy policy. And you know what? A lot of it would not have happened without the governor driving consensus between the Senate and the Assembly.

Q: What else needs to be done? GM: Clearly, this energy highway that the governor outlined is a major economic development tool for upstate New York. The transmission system in some areas is over 50 years old. So, clearly, the technology’s changed, and we have not kept up with it. That, and I think we have to do something with solar generation.

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CAS HOLLOWAY
New York City Deputy Mayor for Operations

Q: What progress has the city made in cutting energy consumption and using cleaner energy?

CH: We have made tremendous progress on both. The mayor committed 10 percent annually of the city’s energy budget to retrofit projects, or about $80 million a year. We have implemented or are in process of implementing about 150 projects. While they’re still in the implementation stage, in December of fiscal year ’11 versus December of fiscal year ’12, overall energy use was down 25 percent. Year-to-date between ’11 and ’12, overall use is down 8 percent. We’re seeing some significant success, but we’re not there yet.

Q: What concerns does the city have about hydrofracking, and are you confident the state will address them?

CH: The state has already shown itself to being a great partner on this issue, and that is due to the governor and also DEC Commissioner Joe Martens, who came around quickly to the city’s view that hydrofracking should not be permitted within New York City’s unfiltered watershed. There’s also a question of what’s the right buffer from our infrastructure, and we submitted comments on this. That’s our primary issue: protection of New York City’s pristine drinking water and the protection of our infrastructure.

Q: Where is the city at on exploring waste-to-energy?

CH: In the context of the city’s overall waste plan—and the mayor announced in the State of the City that we are going to try to double the diversion rate, which is basically diverting waste from landfills. We have an RFP that’s just about ready to go that’s going to seek from the marketplace ideas about what are the newest conversion technologies that are out there. The city produces about 11,000 tons of waste a day. It’s not going to be anything close to that, probably in the 100-ton range. Our diversion rate right now is about 15 percent. To get from 15 percent to 30 percent, in our plan, 10 of those percentage points come from increased reuse and recycling. Where the city is focusing its energies—pun intended—is recycling. But waste-to-energy is important, because there’s always going to be some irreducible amount that can’t be reused or recycled, and technology is getting better and better. New York has been leading the way on a lot of sustainability things, and we’re going to be leading the way on this.

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KEVIN CAHILL
Assembly Energy Committee Chairman

Q: What’s your view on the state’s hydrofracking review?

KC: [Environmental] Commissioner [Joe] Martens offered testimony this month essentially saying that New York State is not ready to issue regulations for fracking. And he does not see us being ready any time in the immediate future, that the review process for the many, many comments received— and he described as learned and valuable comments—will be consuming the DEC’s time for the foreseeable future. He has not identified a place in New York where fracking fluid could be disposed of. He also pointed out that the governor has not asked for any additional staff in the 2012–2013 budget to monitor or license fracking. The disturbing part of Martens’ testimony is: If fracking were to go forward this fiscal year, he would look to existing DEC staff to police that process. Particularly after the decimation of that department over the last several years, there’s no evidence that the DEC is adequately staffed to monitor any fracking.

Q: A new NYSERDA solar study called for a “continued investment in the steady and measured growth and deployment” of solar photovoltaic panels.

KC: The report understates savings from air-quality mitigation avoidance in New York City. It understates the potential for manufacturing in the solar field and the economic multiplier that results from that. The folks who wrote the report seem fairly satisfied with what NYSERDA is doing; yet those policies, together with the tax incentives proposed for this year’s budget, have really failed to cause the solar industry to take off in New York. We believe that the Solar Jobs Act that would create a solar renewable-energy credit system is the way to really advance solar energy to the next plateau.

Q: Does New York need a more comprehensive plan?

KC: We absolutely do, and two years ago I passed legislation that created a permanent and dynamic energy-planning process. New York now has a permanent energy-planning board that convenes on a regular basis and is in the process of building the first legislatively endorsed energy plan, due out later this year. We’re premising the report on the existing administrative plan that we have in New York. Clearly, our energy future will be much better if we work in the context of an energy plan rather than in isolation. The comprehensive energy plan is the only way to ensure a secure, affordable energy future.

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GIL QUINIONES
New York Power Authority President and CEO

Q: What are your goals for NYPA?

GQ: One is really back to basics and fundamentals—it’s to provide safe, reliable, affordable and environmentally responsible energy to our customers and to New Yorkers. The second is to have a laser focus in helping to advance Gov. Cuomo’s energy and economic-development policies and goals.

Q: How will you do that?

GQ: We need to invest in our people. Thirty to forty percent of our employees are retirement-eligible over the next five years, so succession planning and workforce training and development are very important. We need qualified people to operate and maintain our generation and transmission assets. We need to invest in our aging transmission and generation infrastructure. Many of our systems were built in the late ’50s, early ’60s, all the way to the ’70s. We need to address and make sure that they are brought up to a state of good repair. Lastly, with all the changes in the industry and technology, we need to be very, very smart in the deployment of clean-energy technology.

Q: What needs to be done to get private companies to invest in new transmission lines?

GQ: As the governor announced in the State of the State, he intends to have requests for proposals from the private sector, and really cast a wide net and get all the best ideas out there on what we need to do with our energy infrastructure, both production supply as well as the transmission of that power. I think because of deregulation, the rules of the road are not very clear, because of the evolution of deregulation in the energy industry. I think what the governor is embarking on right now with us is to provide a path so that those investments can occur.

Q: Do you see a renaissance in New York’s energy policy?

GQ: I believe the governor has really been a catalyst. Article X, the power-plantsiting law, had been languishing for years. With his leadership, that was enacted last year. Now we have Recharge New York, which is in the implementation stage. We have the energy highway and this NY-Sun initiative. Then it’s really leading by example. Let’s invest and operate state facilities and show to the private sector that these investments make good business sense, that these technologies are tried-and-true.