Letter to the Editor: Wrong-headed policy impacting energy cost, reliability

Regarding your article, “Power Bills Surge ...”, the author neglected to mention what is perhaps the greatest cost and electricity reliability problem in New York: wrong-headed energy policy by Albany politicians. Ironically, as electric usage has shot up due to the issues she mentions, Albany recently closed the Indian Point’s 2000 megawatts of nuclear power; power lost that is now being compensated by costly fossil fuel and imported out-of-state energy.

But the politicians haven’t stopped there. They have been implementing foolish, costly green-energy policies as they have been undermining energy reliability and increasing cost by refocusing resources from where it is needed.

For example, the Clean Energy Standard and Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act mandates utilities must ensure 70 percent of the electricity they provide comes from renewable sources by 2030. Their Zero-Emission Grid by 2040 mandates a transition to 100 percent zero-emission electricity by 2040, and a complex program of Renewable Energy Certificates and Zero-Emission Credits imposes further resource waste that should be focused on reliability and cost savings as load requirements surge.

Speaking of wrong focused spending, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) authorized significant utility spending:

Approximately $3.28 billion for 2026-2030 to be spent on energy efficiency and building electrification programs, and an additional $1.57 billion for utility administered programs for low to moderate income support along with transmission and distribution projects that facilitate renewable energy.

In 2003, the PSC authorized utilities to spend $4.3 billion on 62 transmission projects specifically designed to integrate renewable energy into the grid as the New York Power Authority recently approved a plan to invest in 5.5 gigawatts of new solar, wind, and storage projects.

All of these plans have merit, but not when the state’s basic grid components consisting of obsolete and inadequate transmission lines, aging substations and a lack of reliable generating capacity exist across the state.

Bill Lemanski
Tuxedo