June 5, 2009
GOVERNOR PATERSON ANNOUNCES LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE TO ADVANCE CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY, CREATE NEW JOBS IN NEW YORK, AND SAVE TAXPAYERS MILLIONS OF DOLLARS
Bills Would Help to Create and Retain Jobs and Advance Governor Paterson’s Clean Energy Initiatives
Legislation Would Extend Power for Jobs Program, Authorize an Advanced Coal Carbon Capture and Sequestration Demonstration Project, and Facilitate Significant New Energy Efficiency Projects By Local Governments
Governor David A. Paterson today introduced a package of five Governor’s program bills to advance New York’s emerging clean energy economy, create jobs, protect the environment and save the State money.
The five bills will: extend the State’s Power for Jobs and Energy Cost Savings Benefit programs; update the State’s Energy Conservation Construction Code; expand the authority of the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to provide and finance energy efficiency services, especially for local governments; authorize a siting process for a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) demonstration project that is competing for federal stimulus funds; and authorize the Office of General Services (OGS) to make bulk purchases of energy and energy and energy-related services to reduce costs to State agencies, public authorities and public benefit corporations.
“By investing in clean energy technologies and expanding the State’s energy efficiency programs, we are creating New York’s New Economy. These bills will put people to work, create business opportunities and help continue the work my administration has done to position New York as the global capital of the clean energy economy,” said Governor Paterson. “Since I took office, I have pursued energy policies that will ensure we can reliably meet our energy needs at reasonable cost and with cleaner and more efficient technologies. If our State can not only be a leader in energy efficiency, but also emerge as a leading exporter of new energy technologies, we will create thousands of jobs for a generation.”
The five Governor’s program bills are summarized below.
Power for Jobs Extender: Under this legislation, hundreds of businesses in the State that receive energy discounts under NYPA’s Power of Jobs and the Energy Cost Savings Benefit programs would be extended for one year, retaining thousands of jobs. The programs are currently set to expire at the end of June. Additionally, this bill would authorize NYPA to reallocate benefits that become available during the programs’ extension to other companies, allowing new businesses into the Program if benefits become available, with the potential to create hundreds of new jobs.
Energy Code Amendments: As a pre-condition to obtaining New York’s share of funding under the State Energy Program (SEP) provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), states are required to assure the U.S. Secretary of Energy that they will adopt energy code standards specified by ARRA. The enactment of this program bill would require the State to amend the State Energy Conservation Construction Code and establish a plan to ensure compliance with the revised Code, ensuring that New York obtains the $123 million in formula stimulus funding under the SEP.
NYPA Energy Efficiency Bill: The enactment of this program bill would allow NYPA to provide financing to governmental and private sector customers that are not current customers of NYPA, creating business opportunities for existing and new businesses, creating new jobs and providing another powerful tool to achieve the Governor’s “45 by 15” clean energy goal by facilitating energy efficiency improvements. Current law allows NYPA to provide low-cost financing for energy efficiency services primarily to its governmental customers and K-12 schools statewide. Under its program, NYPA provides the up-front capital for efficiency upgrades and customers pay back the cost of the project through the energy savings. This bill would also help local governments qualify for and spend federal stimulus money that has been made available for local government energy efficiency projects.
Carbon Capture and Sequestration Legislation: In June 2008, Governor Paterson announced seed funding for an advanced CCS demonstration project in Jamestown, New York (Jamestown Project). While current law does not authorize the State to site a carbon dioxide pipeline, or to permit the injection of carbon dioxide into geologic formations deep below the Earth’s surface, enactment of this program bill would provide such authority for a single demonstration project, and would position the State to be eligible for federal funding that is necessary to bring this type of project to fruition and develop this technology in New York potentially for export around the world.
The “Oxy Coal Alliance” which is a consortium of private companies, the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities, and SUNY Buffalo that is developing the Jamestown Project, is seeking a large federal grant worth potentially hundreds of millions of dollars under the Department of Energy’s Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI). Under the ARRA, the CCPI funding level was increased by $1 billion, increasing the likelihood of a grant award for the Oxy Coal Alliance. The Jamestown Project would create hundreds of new construction and other jobs.
CCS – the process of capturing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants or other industrial facilities and injecting the emissions into deep geologic reservoirs for permanent storage – has been identified as one of the most promising strategies to address the challenge of climate change. Some CCS demonstration projects are underway in Europe, but to-date no one has constructed and demonstrated a commercial-scale (or scalable) power plant with CCS.
OGS Bulk Procurement Bill: In order to reduce energy costs to the State and State-related entities, enactment of this Governor’s program bill would give OGS the authority to procure energy and energy-related services “in bulk” on behalf of State agencies, public Authorities and public benefit corporations like hospitals statewide. This bill is expected to save taxpayers millions of dollars every year.
