One factor is evident: The New York Public Service Fee doesn’t shrink back from a problem. Because the Local weather Management and Group Safety Act was adopted in 2019, setting economy-wide greenhouse fuel discount targets and directing the PSC to remove emissions from electrical era, the fee has been exhausting at work updating its applications the place its position underneath the brand new legislation is evident, and making sense of the remainder.
New York’s decarbonization path is nascent, notably with regards to eliminating air pollution from actions that don’t rely straight on utility techniques immediately, however that can depend on these techniques to remove their emissions sooner or later. Vans and buses are an ideal instance. These automobiles are a small slice of the transportation pie, but they’re answerable for an outsized share of the air air pollution from transportation, together with about half of the transportation-related nitrogen oxide and particulate matter contaminants. These pollution trigger critical well being issues, like bronchial asthma — particularly in communities that have excessive truck site visitors.
There are alternatives for changing diesel-fueled automobiles, particularly as a variety of latest zero-emission automobile fashions change into out there. And the shortest path to eliminating dangerous tailpipe emissions from vehicles and buses runs straight by means of the electrical system.
New York PSC should guarantee charging infrastructure in place for medium and heavy-duty fleet electrification Click on To Tweet
Already, each electrical automobile that replaces a diesel automobile means much less local weather and air air pollution. And because the electrical grid will get cleaner over time, the emissions avoidance from electrical automobiles will enhance. Nonetheless, this environmentally promising alternative is dependent upon the electrical grid. As a tidal wave of latest automobiles hits the market, utilities have a lot work to do to be nicely ready for these automobiles. This shortfall have to be addressed as a result of New York adopted the Clear Truck Rule, requiring automobile producers to provide zero-emission vehicles, quickly scaling-up the ZEV vehicles and buses market within the state.
That’s why, final month, EDF, together with different environmental organizations (NRDC and Sierra Membership); a clear transportation advocacy group (CALSTART); and two environmental justice advocates (WE ACT and South Bronx Unite) petitioned the PSC to arrange the utility system for zero-emission vehicles and buses on the ranges and pace that New York’s legislature and environmental regulator require.
At across the identical time as we have been submitting our petition, the PSC took a number of significant steps in constructing a basis for New York’s clear power future in a sequence of orders. Taken collectively, these orders give form to a system of regulatory oversight for each electrical and fuel utility techniques that’s more and more aligned with the state’s environmental targets established within the CLCPA, directing the creation of fairly clear processes for evaluating emissions efficiency and figuring out the place course corrections could also be wanted. Nonetheless, the brand new orders keep away from critically inspecting how the utilities’ techniques will hold tempo with the motion away from fossil fuels in different sectors, corresponding to truck and buses.
This places the fee’s method to evaluating utilities’ alignment with the CLCPA out of step with actuality, as a result of electrical utilities may be delivering primarily low-carbon energy to present clients whereas being unprepared to plug in massive numbers of vehicles and buses and cost them effectively. Zero-emission vehicles and buses can already outperform sure fossil-fueled automobile varieties and obligation cycles, and main fleets corresponding to MTA’s New York Metropolis Transit, the biggest bus fleet within the nation, have already introduced plans to transition away from diesel. In reality, rising demand for charging zero-emission vehicles and buses is a part of the rationale why Con Edison is now looking for, after a decade of efficiently deploying effectivity and demand administration to keep away from needing a brand new substation alongside the Brooklyn-Queens border, to assemble a brand new substation to satisfy this want.
The drumbeat of events demanding that PSC bridge the zero-emission truck and bus charging hole is choosing up energy and urgency. Since our petition, quite a few letters of assist have been filed within the file, representing the views of unpolluted power advocates (Superior Power Economic system, Alliance for Clear Power New York, and the Acadia Heart); producers (together with Proterra, Volvo, and Daimler North America, amongst others); and a vehicle-grid integration firm (Nuuve).
The PSC should acknowledge that the transition to zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty automobiles is already underway and that these automobiles will ultimately want a big quantity of era and different electrical infrastructure. Which means system planning should account for the necessity to cost them, together with the necessity for extra distribution grid capability and extra renewables. Furthermore, getting forward of the speedy automobile deployments can assist assist the general power transition, as a result of with sensible design, truck and bus charging can assist meet another challenges — like offering a cheap various to standalone battery storage and serving to extra renewables come on-line with higher economics.
None of that is simple — and the PSC is aware of that. However working with utilities to make sure that ample charging for vehicles and buses comes on-line once we want it, all whereas maximizing reliance on renewables, is one thing the PSC can, and may, do proper.
