This is a summary of the Climate Act contents of this blog. The opinions expressed on this blog do not reflect the position of any of my previous employers or any other company I have been associated with, this material represents only my thoughts.
Recent Highlights – Spring 2023
Numerous articles on the New York cap and invest program proposal are listed at Carbon Pricing Initiatives. If you are interested in an overview of emissions market programs, the results of Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and how they relate to the New York proposal check out this post.
I have given a presentation for a couple of professional groups and this post summarizes why I am skeptical about the Climate Act.
Citizen’s Guide to the Climate Act Guide Pages
The Citizens Guide to the Climate Act provides a simpler and more user-friendly summary of various aspects of the Climate Act for the non-technical audience.
- Layman Guide to the Climate Act – A simple, short summary of the Climate Act
- Annotated Guide to the Climate Act – Provides more detailed overview information about specific aspects of the Climate Act
- Climate Act Overview – Details and documentation about the law itself
- Implementation Strategy Risks and Effects on Personal Choice – The strategies to reduce emissions have risks to safety and will require changes to personal lifestyles
- Implementation Strategy Risks and Effects
- Reliability Risks – The unprecedented rush to an electric system to an electric system dependent upon wind, solar, and energy storage poses risks to reliability and affordability
- Costs and Benefits – Description of the proposed costs and alleged benefits
- Effect on Global Warming – Describes the impacts of NY policies on global warming itself
- Zero-emissions Environmental Impacts – Information on the environmental impacts of wind, solar, and energy storage
- What You Can Do – Explanation of how the public can comment on the Climate Act
- References – Further reading and backup materials
Community Leadership and Community Protection Act or the “Climate Act”
The Pragmatic Environmentalist of New York blog has a page that lists many articles on various aspects of the Climate Act. For the most part those articles are overly technical for the general public. The following pages provide links to the blog articles:
- New York State Climate Act – New York State Site
- Overview summaries– General descriptions of the Climate Act
- Comments – Summaries of comments submitted on the Climate Act
- Pragmatic Feasibility – Potential feasibility issues
- Pragmatic Costs – Estimates of the costs
- Pragmatic Supporting Regulations – In order to promulgate the law regulations are used to implement specific aspects
- Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act – New York State Site
- Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act – General description of the AREGCBA
- Difference between Climate and Weather – Examples of weather events that are mistakenly attributed to climate change
- Inconvenient Aspects of the Climate Act– Inconvenient trade-offs of the Climate Act
- Hypocritical Aspects of New York Environmental Policy and the Climate Act – Examples of New York environmental decisions that are hypocritically ignored by Climate Act implementation strategies
Climate Act Implementation
These pages link to my articles about the implementation of the Climate Act.
- Supporting Legislation and Regulation
- Component Implementation
- Carbon Pricing Initiatives
- Scoping Plan
- Integration Analysis
- Advisory Panel Implementation Strategies
- Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth & Community Benefit Act
- Meeting Summaries
Background Science and Technology References
Although both the rationale and solution to the threats of climate change are portrayed as settled science, the reality is that it is much more complicated. The following pages reference articles that address the complexities of both the scientific rationale and the proposed solutions:
- Global Warming and Climate Change – These posts are my take on issues related to the science of climate change and global warming.
- Climate Claims – The over-riding reason to transition the energy system away from fossil fuels is the alleged threat of a climate driven existential threat. However, the proof of that is far from settled.
- Renewable Energy Systems Background – There is a perception that wind and solar development can simply replace fossil-fired generation but to understand why that is not the case background information is needed.
- Renewable Energy Feasibility – Overview articles discussing the feasibility of a transition to an energy system dependent upon renewable energy
- Clean Energy – While “green” energy is commonly portrayed as clean and without faults, there is another side to that story.
- Wind Energy – Links are provided to articles on environmental, health and costs of wind energy development.
- Solar Energy – Links are provided to articles on environmental costs of solar energy development.
- Energy Storage – Because renewable energy is intermittent energy storage is needed and this page lists links related to that requirement.
- Electric Heating – In order to meet societal net-zero goals heating systems need to be transitioned away from fossil fuels, but that is a challenge for many reasons.
- Hydrogen Issues – Hydrogen combustion does not produce greenhouse gases but can it safely and economically replace fossil fuels?
- Electric Vehicles – There are many issues associated with widespread implementation of electric vehicles
- Green Energy Costs – Links are provided to estimates of green energy costs in other countries
Other Pragmatic Environmentalist of New York Issues
This blog addresses other environmental and energy issues.
- Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative – Posts describing this cap and invest market program
- Transportation and Climate – Posts on climate-related transportation initiatives.
- Air Quality Issues – Posts on various air quality issues
- New York Energy Policy
- New York Environmental Policy
- Pragmatic Environmentalist Principles
Pragmatic Environmentalist of New York 