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By MARIE J. FRENCH - 10/31/2022
Good morning and welcome to the Monday edition of the New York & New Jersey Energy newsletter. We'll take a look at the week ahead and look back on what you may have missed last week.
FLOOD RULE, WITH EXEMPTIONS — POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: A long-awaited flood rule New Jersey environmental regulators released last week includes an exemption for one of the state’s largest builders — the state Department of Transportation.
The Department of Environmental Protection’s proposed flood rule is meant to protect communities by requiring builders to better prepare for extreme weather, like the flooding brought by the remnants of Hurricane Ida last year.
That the rule includes a carve-out for public road and railway projects suggests a balancing act within Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration between regulatory aspirations about climate change and construction demands. The exemption appears to acknowledge that new building standards could trip up the state’s ability to spend billions of dollars coming here from last year’s infrastructure law.
But the same exemption is certain to invite criticism of Murphy from environmental advocates who worry the lessons Ida taught the state will go unlearned. Many of the 30 people who died during Ida drowned in their cars.
NEW LNG PROJECT NOT NEEDED (YET), CONSULTANT SAYS — POLITICO’s Marie J. French: Additional gas infrastructure pushed by National Grid to serve peak winter demand is not yet needed for reliability, an independent consultant tasked with reviewing the proposal determined. National Grid has been aggressively pushing the addition of two new LNG vaporizers, which would heat liquified natural gas into its gaseous state for injection into the pipeline system, since the state rejected a new pipeline to serve the region. The vaporizers are proposed for an existing Grid facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and have faced staunch community and environmental opposition.
The 98-page PA Consulting report, filed Thursday evening, was a key step in determining whether the Public Service Commission would allow National Grid to move forward and recover its costs for the project. The Department of Environmental Conservation has deferred a decision on a key air permit for the vaporizers until the PSC makes a determination on the need for the project. “The soonest another new source of supply, such as the Greenpoint Project, would be required is the 2028-29 winter season, six seasons from now,” the report states. “This extended period of time would provide significant opportunities to determine whether supply sources such as the [Iroquois] ExC project come online and the degree to which additional demand reduction opportunities from the non-infrastructure solutions … materialize as these programs mature.”
CORRECTION: Last Monday's version of New York and New Jersey Energy incorrectly listed a parent company among those vying for New Jersey offshore wind transmission projects. The list of companies should have included LS Power.
GOOD MONDAY MORNING: Don't forget to vote! Let us know if you have tips, story ideas or life advice. We're always here at mfrench@politico.com and rrivard@politico.com. And if you like this letter, please tell a friend and/or loved one to sign up.
Here's what we're watching this week:
MONDAY
— Supporters of the environmental bond act gather including Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Adrienne Esposito with Citizens Campaign for the Environment, 11 a.m., The Snapper Inn, 500 Shore Dr, Oakdale.
TUESDAY
— New York Climate Action Council members are slated to meet in a smaller group to talk about edits to the local government, transportation and waste chapters of the scoping plan. There was a push to have these sessions live-streamed for the public, but there’s no information yet on the council’s site.
THURSDAY
— Another session on chapters of the climate plan including agriculture, just transition and adaptation was planned.
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AROUND NEW YORK
— Gov. Kathy Hochul renamed and made permanent the storm recovery office set up after Hurricane Sandy.
— Mayor Eric Adams wants to spend $4 billion switching 100 public schools off fossil fuels and over to electric heat, he announced Friday. Schools have historically been a big polluter. The effort will help bring schools into compliance with Local Law 97.
— PORT NEWS: The Arthur Kill Terminal projectsecured one piece of the federal funding it needs to move forward as one of the few offshore wind sites with no bridge clearance issues. Empire State Development did not offer any funding, but assisted with the application. More federal support and NYSERDA-administered offshore wind supply chain funding will be needed to move forward, developers said.
— The CITY wrote aboutmutual aid after Sandy, the continued work to protect MTA tracks, and the vulnerability of East Harlem. The Gothamist also had some Sandy stories, including one on the overall continued vulnerability of the shoreline. The New York Times proposes five ways to prevent the next Sandy.
AROUND NEW JERSEY
— The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities is seeking advice and information ahead of its next offshore wind farm solicitation.
— The Asbury Park Press did a retrospective on the damage and coverage after Sandy swept in.
— Residents of the former bungalow community of Camp Osborn — located on the barrier island between Mantoloking and Normandy Beach — are one step closer to returning home.
— A bond between two towns sparked by Sandy continues.
— What Hoboken is doing to defend against future flooding.
WHAT YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
10 YEARS AFTER — POLITICO’s Danielle Muoio Dunn and Ry Rivard: As Hurricane Sandy barreled ashore, bringing battering winds and crushing waves, thousands evacuated their homes in New York and New Jersey before the storm cut a $69 billion swath of destruction across the region, crippling public transit and causing a historic shutdown of Wall Street trading. But 10 years after Sandy, many of the bold improvements planned in the hurricane’s immediate aftermath remain incomplete or behind schedule in New York and New Jersey. So neighborhoods remain unprotected, along with many lives and valuable property. Not because the money isn’t there, but because of delays, red tape and politics.
FLOOD RULES — POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: After months of delay, Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration announced Thursday that it would release a new rule to protect inland communities from flooding.
NYC LOOKS BEYOND RESILIENCY — POLITICO’s Danielle Muoio Dunn: As the city races to complete billions in coastal resiliency projects launched in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, officials are starting to turn more of their attention inland. Top environmental officials on Wednesday announced a new program, Climate Strong Communities, to better address climate risks faced by the millions of New Yorkers who don’t live along the city’s 520 miles of shoreline. The projects will address hazards like extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which disproportionately affect communities of color that lack adequate infrastructure to mitigate the impact of ever-worsening storms and rising temperatures.
$1B ONSHORE FOR OFFSHORE WIND — POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday approved $1 billion in infrastructure projects meant to help bring offshore wind energy to millions of homes throughout the state. The decision is among the most significant — and expensive — in the BPU’s history. Wind energy is necessary for Gov. Phil Murphy and President Joe Biden to meet their climate change and clean energy goals, but past projects have stalled in part because local communities have tried to block the power lines that bring the energy ashore. The BPU is trying to solve that problem by creating a single landing spot for power lines in a way that reduces local opposition and saves money.
AFTER SANDY, AUDIT SLAMS NYC EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT — POLITICO’s Marie J. French: New York City’s emergency management office has not accurately tracked hazard mitigation projects, a state audit found, raising questions about the city’s readiness for major storms a decade after Sandy. An audit found weak oversight by the New York City Emergency Management of projects across the city intended to limit damage from major storm events and other dangers. Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office also faulted the independent agency tasked with emergency planning and response for a lack of formal review of evacuation plans and problems with other agencies’ operational continuity plans.
BOND ACT DECISION LOOMS FOR VOTERS — POLITICO’s Marie J. French: Environmental advocates, labor unions and business groups are backing what would be the most significant investment in climate action and mitigation outside of utility bills in New York’s history. The $4.2 billion environmental bond act will appear on New Yorkers’ ballots on Election Day, Nov. 8. Despite positive polling, significant support across the political spectrum and a lack of organized opposition, backers of the bond act — known as Proposition 1 — continue to promote awareness of the measure, which will appear the back of most voters' ballots although could appear on the front in some counties.
BATTERY BOOST… FOR THE SOUTH: The federal government is giving a big boost to a Chicago-based battery materials company with a factory in Niagara County — to build a factory in Alabama. The Department of Energy announced a $117 million grant for Anovion, which produces synthetic graphite anode material for batteries used in electric vehicles and storage. The grant is part of the spending under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.