New York’s Energy Plan Bets on Nuclear Power to Hit Clean Energy Targets

 By Haley Zaremba - Jan 09, 2026

 

• New York City's municipal government has dramatically cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 31 percent since 2006, reaching the lowest levels in decades, but the Department of Education remains a major challenge with only a 14 percent reduction.

 

• The vast majority (70 percent) of citywide emissions still come from buildings, followed by the transportation sector, indicating that significant energy inefficiencies persist outside of municipal operations.

 

• New York State is at risk of missing its clean energy targets but has introduced a new energy plan that explicitly includes nuclear power as a critical component of its decarbonization roadmap to achieve its 2040 goals.

New York City’s government has achieved a remarkable drop in greenhouse gas emissions. A new report shows that the city’s municipal operators are using less energy and emitting less carbon than they were twenty years ago. In fact, while greenhouse gas emissions around the world continue to climb, New York’s governmental emissions have dropped a stunning 31 percent since 2006, reaching their lowest level in decades.

 

This remarkable achievement comes thanks to several different policy approaches to making New York City greener and more energy efficient over the past 20 years. City buildings are not only being retrofitted for more energy efficiency, the New York City government has installed 7.1 megawatts of solar across 35 sites over the past fiscal year. 

 

The City’s government is working hard to meet a mandated 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2006 levels, as required by Local Law 97. And the newest figures from a Department of Citywide Administrative Services report shows that the city is well on its way toward meeting that mandate.

 

However, progress has been notably slower at large and notoriously inertia-burdened agencies like the Department of Education. The Department of Education oversees nearly 1,500 facilities across New York City, and represents the city's single-largest greenhouse gas emitter by a wide margin. Because of its scale, it is therefore particularly meaningful for citywide emissions that the Department of Education has only achieved a 14 percent reduction in emissions since 2006 – less than half the reduction achieved by municipal government operations.

 

“Our work doesn’t stop here. We will keep pushing forward, finding the highest-impact opportunities, and raising the bar for what the city government can achieve,” Sana Barakat, New York City’s chief decarbonization officer, recently told Gothamist.

 

While it’s great news that the municipal government has seen success with its emissions cuts, greenhouse gas emissions and energy inefficiencies continue to be a problem at a citywide level. The lion’s share of New York’s emissions come from its buildings, and especially its residences, as “many buildings rely on fossil fuels for heating, cooling, and cooking, and have energy inefficient appliances or windows that cause higher emissions,” according to the city’s comptroller Mark Levine. In fact, a whopping 70 percent of citywide emissions come from buildings, followed by the transportation sector. On a state level, New York emitted more building air pollution than any other state as of 2021. 

 

Indeed, while New York is ahead of the curve on solar power installations, the state is falling dangerously behind on its renewable energy pledges overall. Evaluators have projected that the state will miss its ambitious clean energy targets without a serious deviation from the status quo. But the state’s newest energy plan, released at the end of last year, may deliver just that kind of deviation. The new plan is shaking things up by introducing nuclear energy as a critical part of the state’s decarbonization roadmap.  

 

“For the first time, New York explicitly evaluated nuclear power in its power system modeling and found that adding new nuclear energy would make it easier and less expensive for the state to meet its 2040 clean energy target,” reports Utility Dive, before adding that “this conclusion comes at a pivotal moment” for the state’s energy goals. 

 

However, for this plan to work, New York will have to introduce comprehensive legislation that supports nuclear expansion with upgrades to the grid and transmission capacities. “Ultimately, New York’s new energy plan sends an important signal,” says Utility Dive. “Deep decarbonization requires not just ambition, but technological inclusion.” With appropriate funding and logistical supports for New York’s nuclear roadmap and continued progress on energy efficiency and renewable energy expansion, the city and state could provide a critical example for other mega-cities struggling with the challenges of decarbonization at this critical juncture. 

 

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

 

New York’s Energy Plan Bets on Nuclear Power to Hit Clean Energy Targets | OilPrice.com