Add state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to the list of officials questioning whether New York state will meet the aggressive emissions targets in its 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

DiNapoli recently issued a report on the state’s efforts to generate 70% of electricity used in New York from renewable sources by 2030 and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from electric generation in the state by 2040. The comptroller’s efforts outline the same problem highlighted in recent months by the New York Independent System Operator — not enough wind and solar projects in the pipeline to meet the state’s transition away from soon-to-be retired fossil fuel power plants.

The comptroller is also calling attention to another less-discussed issue with the state’s electric grid of the future — ratepayers are paying for most of the work.

“It will also be important for policymakers charged with implementing the CLCPA to consider mechanisms to hold down the cost of meeting its goals on the State’s electric consumers. Given the ongoing concerns with affordability of electricity and the difficulty that some state residents face in paying their electric bills, the state could consider alternative funding mechanisms to per kilowatt hour charges on electric consumption,” DiNapoli wrote in his report. “The Climate Action Fund, created in the 2023-24 enacted budget, provides one such option. Every effort should be made to clearly identify how the transitions to the state’s electric generation fleet and transmission grid will affect consumer electric bills in the future and to hold down costs to the state’s electric customers. “

DiNapoli recently issued a report on the state’s efforts to generate 70% of electricity used in New York from renewable sources by 2030 and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from electric generation in the state by 2040. The comptroller’s efforts outline the same problem highlighted in recent months by the New York Independent System Operator — not enough wind and solar projects in the pipeline to meet the state’s lofty goals.

DiNapoli’s report found that renewable generators in New York would need to produce an additional 78,073-gigawatt hours above 2022 levels, an increase of over 200%, to reach the CLCPA’s 2030 goal of 70% renewable electricity consumption. The analysis is based on projections from the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO). NYISO has also projected that the state would need to add 20 gigawatts of installed renewable capacity by 2030, which is triple the 2022 capacity of approximately 6.5 gigawatts. In the last 20 years, New York added 12.9 gigawatts of total electric generation, including both fossil fuel and renewable sources.

He said lackluster state support of the Clean Energy Standard and Renewable Portfolio Standard have put the state in the catch-up position it now finds itself. He said the state didn’t provide enough incentives in the mid-2010s to attract new energy developers. Developers who have begun projects haven’t always been able to finish them, with 28% of projects approved being cancelled between 2005 and 2023. It also takes a long time to secure sites for renewable energy despite the 2020 formation of the Office of Renewable Energy Siting. The New York Independent System Operator has one of the longest interconnection development processes in the nation, according to DiNapoli, something he said needs to change in the future.

As The Post-Journal and OBSERVER have reported in recent years, the state will have to spend significant amounts of money on transmission equipment to get renewable energy to the areas of the state that need it, particularly in New York City.

The state also needs to find electric generating facilities that can produce power when wind and solar power aren’t generating — and those technologies haven’t yet been created.

“Second, the state will have to consider and be transparent about the costs of this transition to the state’s electric customers. The costs of incentives to encourage renewable siting and the costs of transmission projects approved by the PSC are integrated into electric bills and care must be taken to hold down these costs,” DiNapoli wrote.