New York’s role as a climate leader is undisputed, but true leadership demands the courage to have an honest dialogue about delivering progress in a way that is smarter, more practical and more affordable for every New Yorker.
The fundamental disagreement over how to meet our environmental targets without saddling New York families with excessive costs is a key sticking point that has delayed the state budget. But state leaders cannot allow perfection to stall progress.
Why NY must adjust emission accounting standards
While the devil is in the details, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s position that the state should adjust its greenhouse gas emission accounting standards to simply align with the standards used both by other states and international climate scientists deserves an honest conversation.
Much focus has been placed on the timeline over which the impact of emissions is tracked: 20 years under New York’s standards versus 100 years elsewhere. But a second change — to measure so-called lifecycle emissions of fuels used for home heating and vehicles instead of only what comes out of the tailpipe or chimney — could actually have a far greater impact on how New York decarbonizes in the future by incentivizing greater use of renewable fuels derived from sources like used cooking oil and other food waste streams.
For too long, New York’s outlier status has overlooked renewable fuels because under the state’s math, the rules ignore the carbon that plants and organic waste soak up while they are growing. By discounting the full lifecycle of these fuels, New York credits them with making only a marginal reduction in emissions.
While the idea is somewhat complicated, the results are clear. Take California, which uses a lifecycle assessment method and an associated Clean Fuel Standard program that has created the nation’s pre-eminent market for renewable fuels. Nearly 75% of the state’s diesel is now renewable fuel, supplanting traditional fossil fuels that have a significantly higher emissions impact. Closer to home, the city of New York has taken steps to, when counted properly, reduce 162 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions annually by switching its snowplows, garbage trucks, ferry and other diesel-powered vehicles to renewable fuels. In Westchester, the county of Westchester, Croton-on-Hudson and Tuckahoe are at the forefront using renewable fuel to meet their decarbonization objectives.
How New York can pragmatically lead
But despite clear evidence of their benefits, New York State’s current regulations send a message to fuel producers that they should continue directing their supplies to states like California that properly credit those fuels. That leaves New Yorkers with fewer options at a time when both fossil fuels and utility costs are sky high.
By initiating this difficult but necessary dialogue, Hochul has demonstrated that New York can be an environmental leader while also embracing pragmatic changes that protect the families and businesses that power our state.
It’s time to codify these accounting standards that will pave the way for what can come next with policies like a market-based Clean Fuel Standard and ensure that every New Yorker can participate in the green economy.
Larry O’Connell serves as co-president of the Federated Conservationists of Westchester County board of directors.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Fixing New York’s climate accounting is a long-term win | Opinion
Reporting by Larry O’Connell, Special to the USA TODAY Network / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
