Is New York State falling
short of their clean energy potential if they agree to allow hydraulic
fracturing (fracking) in the State? Stanford University Professor Mark Jacobson
thinks so. A study released by the University
from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and the
Atmosphere/Energy Program says it would be economically feasible for New York
to transition to 100% renewable energy for all of their power demands by 2030.
But the ongoing debate about whether or not to allow fracking in New York has
the Empire State at a crossroads between drilling for natural gas and
increasing its renewable energy portfolio. The direction the State chooses
could set the stage for defining its energy future and serve as an example for
other states. Unfortunately, this means that if Governor Cuomo chooses to allow
fracking in New York, the advancement of the renewable energy industry may
suffer a serious setback. An energy plan based on renewables would be a much
smarter investment for New York than investing in natural gas.
The study that was published by
Stanford University demonstrated the economic feasibility of transitioning New York’s
all-purpose energy infrastructure to renewable sources. The study concluded
that New York State could meet its power demand with 10% onshore wind, 40%
offshore wind, 10% concentrated solar plants, 10% solar PV power plants, 6%
residential rooftop PV, 12% commercial governmental rooftop, 5% geothermal,
0.5% wave, 1% tidal, and 5.5% hydroelectric. It’s been estimated that this
ambitious plan would create 4.5 million temporary jobs and 58,000 permanent
jobs. If New York State were to move in this direction, they would dramatically
cut their pollution costs for the State. The Stanford Study explains that "the implementation of plans such as this in
countries worldwide should reduce global warming, air, soil, and water
pollution and energy insecurity” (Stanford Study).
New York State has the
potential to become a leader in the clean energy future, making it a great
place to implement an ambitious energy plan. New York consumes the
second lowest amount of energy per capita as compared to every other state. New
Yorkers also use more public transportation on average than the majority of Americans. New York contains the largest hydroelectric power plant in the eastern
U.S. and is already one of the top states using electricity generation from
landfill gas and municipal solid waste. The State has enormous wind potential;
it’s estimated that New York has the potential for 8,000 megawatts of wind
energy, with the highest energy potential around the great lake areas, the
Catskills, the Adriondacks and the Long Island Shoreline. New York also ranks
top ten nation wide for their solar PV installations, and more New Yorkers are
also driving electric cars, with a growing charging station infrastructure.
Allen Wechsler from the New
York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA spoke about
the recent progress that New York State has made in the field of renewable
energy. Wechsler said that "In the past 10 years they have developed 65
large-scale renewable projects throughout the state, increasing their renewable
power generation by 1,800 mega watts." The State has also spent over a
billion dollars in the past 10 years on renewables. He also said that the
renewable energy development in New York has been economically beneficial to
the State. He says that "there is a benefit to buying into renewables
because they create jobs and lead to savings for contractors and
manufacturers.” Overall the State has seen a cumulative net gross of $2
billion from the renewable projects.
New York released its 2014 Draft Energy Plan through
NYSERDA with goals that align with a clean energy future stating, “the boldness
of our solutions should match the magnitude of our challenges”(Draft Energy
Plan). The report says they’re increasing investments in the clean energy
economy in order to “support our aggressive environmental goals” (Draft Energy
plan). They have a number of programs aimed at supporting a clean energy
economy, including programs to improve the electric grid, ChargeNY to add 3,000
charging stations to workplaces for electric vehicles, the NY-Sun initiative
to support solar programs, BuildSmart NY to reduce energy consumption in state
buildings and more. The State says that they’re set to reduce carbon emissions
by 50% by 2030, and they have put themselves on a path to reduce its emissions by
80% by 2050. However, the States' plans are vague and this has raised concerns
as to the States' intentions because “the
document fails to lead New York to a sustainable future built on renewables”
(New Yorkers against Fracking). The fear is that the States’ new energy plan is leaving plenty of room for fracking. Sierra
Club members are urging New York to move toward an energy plan which reduces reliance on fossil fuels and emphasizes the importance of renewable energy (Ciesielski).
Both New Yorkers against Fracking and the Sierra Club are urging people to comment on the plan:
The Sierra Club believes that our biggest threat
is climate change, according to Eastern Region Organizing Director of the
Sierra Club, Mark Bettinger. He said the organization's
main goal is to move away from fossil fuels in the
transportation sector and the power sector. Bettinger said that the easy option
would be to switch to natural gas, but there are other opportunities that
should be explored. He said, "New York has huge opportunities, both on shore and offshore, to replace existing power generation through
renewables." He thought that fracking in New York posed a threat to the progress
in the renewable energy industry in the State. He pointed out, wind and
solar energy need to be competitive. That’s the reason that people are moving
away from coal, it’s not economical anymore. Natural gas is much
cheaper and this poses a potential problem. Aside from being able to link
everything to the energy grid, Bettinger said, “the greatest challenges will
arise from policy and political will.”
However, there are many
challenges that would need to be overcome in order to continue increasing the
percentage of renewables in New York. Allen MacFarland, who works on an energy
statistics team at the U.S Energy Information Administration, explained the
major challenges that New York will encounter when increasing the percentage of
renewables in their energy portfolio. He said that one problem is that battery
storage is expensive, and unfortunately wind power is the strongest at night,
and electricity demand is the highest during the day. And a major problem with solar energy is that it is variable. MacFarland also said that the
transportation sector requires major infrastructure change, "Prioritizing
electric cars would be a great start, however, providing charging stations
would be another major obstacle."
A student from Saint Michael’s College, Nick Rucci, researched the
effects of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in New York State to examine
the effect that it would have. He found that fracking in New York
fracking was likely to decrease crop yield, lead to animal sickness, water
contamination and air pollution. Fracking in New York, especially the Catskill
region would prove to be a disastrous mistake if the watershed for the
millions of people who live in New York City was contaminated. These harmful
consequences of fracking aren’t going to disappear with time, and we need to
make sure we protect our home state from them. Let’s hope Governor Cuomo has
our State’s best interest in mind and is prepared to put us on the right energy
path for the future. It’s clear that there is a much better alternative to
fossil fuels and natural gas available to us, and we know how we can achieve
it. We’re capable of a lot more that we give ourselves credit for, so let’s not
settle for natural gas and fracking, we know we can do better.
2014 New York State Draft Energy Plan. N.p.: NYSERDA, n.d. Print.
Atlantic2.sierraclub.org/. Sierra Club, 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
<http://atlantic2.sierraclub.org/>.
Hill, Michael. "NY Renewable Energy Study Finds New York Could Soon Be Powered by Wind, Water and
Sunlight." Huffington
Post (2013): n. pag. Print.
How You Can Contribute to a 100% Renewable New York. N.p.: Sierra Club, n.d. Print.
Jacobson, Mark, and Mark Delucchi. Examining the feasibility of converting New York State’s
all-purpose energy infrastructure to one using wind, water, and sunlight. N.p.: n.p., 2013.
Print.
Jordan, Rob. "Stanford Researcher Maps out an Alternative Energy Future for New York." Stanford News
(2013): n. pag. Print.
Montgomery, James. "Converting New York State Entirely to Renewable Energy: What Would It Look
Like?" Renewable Energy World.com (2013): n. pag. Print.
"NY State Energy Plan Comment Form." New Yorkers against Fracking. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
<http://nyagainstfracking.org/comment-on-the-proposed-new-york-state-energy-plan/>.
"Profile Analysis." U.S Energy Information Administration. N.p., Dec. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.cfm?sid=NY>.
"State energy plan leaves out renewables, ignores climate goals." Atlantic2.sierraclub.org. Sierra
Club, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. <https://atlantic2.sierraclub.org/content/
state-energy-plan-leaves-out-renewables-ignores-climate-goals>. 
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