JUDGE ORDERS CLIMATE RULES, HOCHUL BALKS

 10/27/2025

 

JUDGE ORDERS CLIMATE RULES, HOCHUL BALKS — POLITICO’s Marie J. French:  An Albany County judge ruled that Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration is violating state law by failing to issue regulations to reduce emissions.

The decision is a major victory for environmental groups that sued to force New York to comply with the state’s 2019 climate law, which requires emissions to be cut 40 percent from 1990 levels in the next five years.

The judge’s ruling Friday directs the Department of Environmental Conservation to issue regulations to cut emissions by February 6.

Hochul has delayed the rollout of regulations to implement a cap-and-trade style program to limit emissions and charge for pollution, citing affordability concerns. The program, which she first proposed, was viewed as the main pathway to incentivize electrification and raise revenue to achieve the state’s statutory emissions targets.

The judge’s ruling could force Democratic lawmakers to reckon with the climate law’s full up-front costs. Some of them have already been raising concerns about steps taken to implement the law, like requirements for the electrification of new buildings and school buses.

Hochul criticized the decision in a statement and said she'd review all options, including working with lawmakers to modify the climate law and a potential appeal, "in order to protect New Yorkers from higher costs.”

— Despite the risk of a pyrrhic victory, environmental groups, including NY Renews, Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Advocates NY, issued statements celebrating the judge’s ruling and urging Hochul to release the cap-and-invest regulations. “This ruling is a powerful message that the Climate Act is the law and must be enforced,” said NY Renews Executive Director Stephan Edel. “The Governor cannot continue to ignore the law and jeopardize New Yorkers’ lives and future.”

— The Buffalo News, New York Focus and the Times Union also covered the ruling.

HOCHUL CONSIDERS ALL-ELECTRIC DELAY: Gov. Kathy Hochul signaled openness to delaying a prohibition against gas stoves and furnaces for new small buildings after upstate Democratic lawmakers raised concerns.

The all-electric buildings mandate — which Hochul heralded as a major accomplishment in 2023 — is part of new building codes set to go into effect in January.

“We just received correspondence from some upstate members of the legislature so we’re looking at that seriously,” Hochul said of the looming requirement at a press conference Friday in Rochester.

Assemblymember William Conrad, a Democrat from the Buffalo area, is circulating a sign-on letter calling for a delay, as first reported by Spectrum News. The letter asks for additional analysis of the grid’s readiness for electrification, given recent warnings of reliability risks.

Hochul noted the state recently delayed another electrification mandate she once championed for school buses.

“I’m going to look at this with a very realistic approach and do what I can, because my number one focus is affordability,” Hochul said.

“The Governor shouldn’t be fooled by bad faith arguments that use ‘affordability’ as a smokescreen for backtracking on climate progress,” said Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, who pushed the all-electric requirement. “But sadly, this would be par for the course for this Governor, who can’t stick with her commitments, as we saw with Congestion Pricing, the Cap & Invest program, and our Climate Law. If the Governor is really committed to affordability, she should hold strong to her own proposal — which the legislature passed — and side with New Yorkers, not the fossil fuel industry.” — Marie J. French

MONDAY

— The Energy Policy Planning Advisory Council, a stakeholder group to inform New York’s grid planning efforts, meets, 2 p.m.

THURSDAY

— The Business Council of New York State holds their annual environmental conference, at Saratoga Springs City Center.

LAWMAKERS EYE DATA CENTERS — POLITICO’s Marie J. French: State lawmakers are grappling with what policies to adopt to address the risks posed by new data centers, which could lead to rising utility costs.

The latest public data shows that more than 10 gigawatts of new energy requests are pending in New York. The majority of those are linked to data centers for artificial intelligence.

“This increased electricity consumption, combined with the accompanying need for infrastructure and generation to serve these large energy users, is a cost that is currently borne by all ratepayers, and could further strain already cash-strapped New Yorkers,” said Assemblymember Didi Barrett, chair of the Energy Committee, during a hearing on data centers.

— The U.S. Department of Energy directed FERC to consider policies to speed up interconnection for large energy users like data centers.

NYSERDA REDIRECTS BUILD READY PROGRAM: With only one project fully developed after five years, the state’s energy authority wants to redirect a Cuomo-era program aimed at using landfills and brownfields for renewables. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has asked the Public Service Commission to approve a major pivot for the “Build Ready” program that was launched in 2020. Essentially, the program isn’t working — so the authority wants to shift the focus to align with other economic development siting efforts.

“Despite the Program’s achievements and significant efforts, its direct contributions toward New York State’s clean energy goals have been limited,” NYSERDA’s five-year review of the program states.

The “Build Ready” initiative was launched by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo as part of a measure to speed up renewable permitting approvals and construction. The idea was that NYSERDA would locate brownfield or landfill sites that private developers saw as too challenging to build on, advance them through regulatory approvals and other hurdles, and then turn them over to a private company for development of renewables. So far, the authority has only succeeded in that endeavor once. The Benson Mines site — on a former pile of waste from iron ore — was auctioned to a private developer for a 12-megawatt solar project this year.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has focused heavily on attracting new manufacturing and other development to New York. She’s pushed an “all of the above” energy strategy to meet growing demand from electrification of buildings and vehicles along with large new loads like the Micron project in Syracuse. NYSERDA’s filing says the authority will support Empire State Development with the state’s new fund to pay for grid upgrade costs for new developments — “POWER UP” — and the shovel-ready grant program — ”FAST NY.”

NYSERDA said it will work with economic development partners “to assess and optimally site new loads in support of various State economic development initiatives.” The idea is to evaluate potential locations for new large energy users. “This effort would assess numerous sites for grid interconnection viability, evaluate the related costs, and explore the integration of clean energy technologies,” the filing states. “Build-Ready will continue its activities to identify, screen, and advance sites for select solar PV and [battery storage] projects.” — Marie J. French

NUCLEAR SUBSIDIES DISSECTED: New York state estimates that the costs of subsidizing nuclear plants from 2029 through 2050 are about $5.5 billion, when accounting for forecast energy prices and other factors. That’s according to a new analysis by NYSERDA, filed last Monday in comments on the pending proposal to extend the state’s nuclear subsidies for 20 years. On a net present-value basis, the cost is about $3.3 billion. The cost is “far outweighed by ratepayer savings,” according to NYSERDA. The authority estimates that electric-system costs would be about $15 billion higher if the plants retire. The system would need to build more than 16 gigawatts of new zero-emission combustion generation, renewables and storage if the state’s upstate nuclear fleet retired, according to NYSERDA’s analysis.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration is mulling another round of “zero emission credit” subsidies for three upstate nuclear plants. The current program is set to expire in 2029, raising concerns the units could retire and not pursue license extensions. Some environmental groups oppose the continued subsidies, taking issue with the costs and pushing for that money to be directed toward new renewables and storage. But Hochul has been supportive of nuclear energy as a key part of achieving the state’s clean energy goals and her Department of Public Service proposed the extended program.

Constellation, which owns the upstate plants that would benefit from the subsidies, says the state should extend the program to support continued operations, including license renewals that must start next year. The company wants the commission to act before the end of the year.