New York state is poised to delay the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act – though the 10-year delay doesn’t go as far as many Republicans prefer.

The delay was included in the Transportation, Economic Development and Environmental Conservation budget bill introduced on Memorial Day Monday and passed by both houses of the state Legislature on Tuesday.

“What we’re saying today is, ‘You were all wrong about the CLCPA,'” said Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, on the Senate floor in his remarks on the bill. “What we’re saying today is, ‘You guys were wrong’ and now we’re going to extend it another 10 years, maybe. I think all of this is kind of written on an Etch-A-Sketch and you’ll shake it up after the election. But for now, you’ll kick it out 10 years. Why? Because we’ve been telling you since day one it was not going to work and now it’s an election year and now you have to remember the fact that everyone opens their electric bill, their utility bill every month and they have in front of them a very painful reminder of the horrible energy policy here in New York state.”

Several deadlines and benchmarks included in the 2019 CLCPA are being pushed back, including a 2024 deadline for regulations from the Department of Environmental Conservation that were the subject of a lawsuit by environmental groups. Those 2024 regulations are now due by Dec. 31, 2028, with the extension essentially ending the lawsuit.

Hochul had argued the regulations will cost New Yorkers thousands of dollars, while Democratic Party lawmakers had been pushing an appellate court panel to require the state to release the regulations despite the cost.

The budget bill also pushes back the 2030 goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 40% from 1990 levels to a new 2040 goal of a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that includes the language “to the maximum extent feasible and cost effective. A 2050 deadline to reach an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is left in place.

Sen. Pete Harckham, D-Peekskill, debated Borrello on the Senate floor Tuesday. Much of the discussion between Borrello and Harckham focused on a change in the way emissions from imported power are accounted in the CLCPA. Fossil fuel power imported into the state won’t be counted in the state’s CLCPA calculations

“It is interesting to hear because we have heard in prior debates from the other side of the aisle where we have been criticized, or the policy has been criticized, that we were accounting for out-of-state emissions as opposed to in-state emissions,” Harckham said. “Having said that, the ultimate goal, senator, to your point, is we want to produce as much as we can in-state. That’s where wind, where we can get back to a reasonable national wind policy, and solar contribute. Because we are not dependent on other states and their fossil fuels. We’re not dependent upon geopolitical events and wars either in Ukraine or the Persian Gulf.”

The state will also now account for greenhouse gas emissions over a 100-year timeframe rather than a 20-year timeframe. The change puts New York in line with the way other states calculate emissions and bring the state closer to reaching its climate goals with the stroke of a pen.

Borrello’s biggest criticism of the budget bill’s changes to the CLCPA are that it doesn’t go far enough to reduce electricity costs or to increase baseline power production in the wake of the state Independent System Operator’s warnings about possible electric grid shortfalls and the New York Power Authority suggesting the use of more natural gas power production as a way to decrease power costs.

“You had an opportunity to do what NYSERDA has said you should do, what the New York Power Authority has said you should do and, quite frankly, what the Governor says you should do,” Borrello said. “Let’s invest in those traditional baseload powers once again. Let’s power with natural gas. Let’s reduce the cost of energy right now, not 10 or 30 or 30 years from now, right now. But instead we’re going to pretend this isn’t happening and there are some other reasons that somehow, the high cost of electricity in New York state is the fault of someone else other than the policy here. So I’m disappointed that this bill doesn’t have anything in it that’s going to reduce energy prices for New Yorkers as soon as it is signed.”