Designated disadvantaged communities in Chautauqua County

Portions of Jamestown and north county will receive more clean energy and energy efficiency funding after being designated disadvantaged communities.

The state’s Climate Justice Working Group, composed of representatives from environmental justice organizations, voted to finalize 1,736 designated census tracts — more than one-third of all in the state — that are guaranteed to get extra funding.

The state published interactive maps highlighting the designated areas in purple. Communities that aren’t highlighted won’t be eligible for specially designated funds that will prioritize reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution in those regions.

The working group chose the communities based on factors reflecting environmental burden and future risk. Such indicators include risk of flooding, exposure to pollution, health vulnerabilities, income levels, and proportion of minority households. Households with incomes under 60% of the state median income are also included as disadvantaged.

Disadvantaged communities are mandated to receive at least 35% of state spending on clean energy and energy efficiency programs under New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

The Scoping Plan’s recommendations are meant to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, drive critical building and transportation electrification, secure climate justice, and advance the State’s commitment to economy-wide carbon neutrality by 2050

The Plan outlines actions needed for New York to achieve:
– 70 percent renewable energy by 2030;
– 100 percent zero-emission electricity by 2040;
– a 40-percent reduction in statewide greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2030,
– an 85-percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2050;
– and net-zero emissions statewide by 2050.

State Senator George Borrello issued a statement critical of the plan, saying the state is moving away from affordable and reliable sources of energy.

He said the core of the plan are bans on the most common energy sources used by New York consumers and businesses. This includes bans on new natural gas, propane and heating fuel oil systems will start as soon as 2025 for new construction and in 2030 for existing buildings. Starting in 2035, consumers will no longer be able to purchase natural gas, propane or fuel oil appliances for heating, cooking, or clothes drying. Gasoline-powered automobiles will be banned for sale in New York starting in 2035.

Borrello added that the plan does not address costs for conversion and that none of the mandates should move forward until a comprehensive cost benefit analysis is completed.

The low-cost Niagara hydropower to Coal Ash Recycling (CAR) will support the company’s expansion in Fredonia.

CAR is an owner of landfill sites that hold fly ash, a key component in concrete manufacturing. The expansion project will be to remediate and process fly ash so that it may be used in the production of low-carbon green concrete. Fly ash is a byproduct of burning ground coal to generate electricity. CAR’s Chautauqua County landfill contains fly ash produced at the Dunkirk Generating Station in the 1960s through the 1980s.

The production of cement, a common ingredient in concrete, is responsible for nearly 8 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. Substituting fly ash for cement in concrete production increases the life of concrete structures by improving its overall strength and durability. Additionally, it saves water and significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

CAR’s application was considered under the Green Jobs Evaluation Incentive Plan approved by the trustees on December 9, 2020. The plan allows for the consideration of green jobs impacts when evaluating applications for NYPA hydropower. CAR’s project meets the qualifying criteria as a green jobs company in New York State. Additionally, the project supports the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act and Low Embodied Carbon Concrete Leadership Act, which requires the use of low-carbon concrete on New York State funded projects.

Jamestown BPU Board meeting on November 21, 2022

The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities passed a 3% water rate increase for 2023 at its meeting Monday.

While the water division has an increase, the wastewater division rate is staying the same. The rate will be effective January 1, 2023.

The board also heard a presentation on the proposed 2023 Electric Budget.

General Manager Dave Leathers said the budget presents no surprises with the division stable and under control, “Obviously, with supply chain issues, lead time issues, inflationary issues, I mean, there’s costs expense creep. We had not had a rate increase since March of 2016 and so that’s quite a ways. So, we’re looking for the future here, so we’re looking more toward the end of 2023 and ’24 if there’s a need for a rate case, so I’d say that’s one item we talked a bit about.”

In order to increase the rate, the BPU has to make a request to the New York State Public Service Commission. Leathers said that process can take 12 months.

Leathers said the board is looking at what’s coming from the state under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection act in the coming years. In terms of capital projects in the near future related to that legislation, Leathers said 2023 and 2024 will be more engineering studies and preparatory work.

Also, video livestreaming, which was supposed to start this month, had to be postponed until the BPU’s meeting on December 19 due to the absence of the staff member who is to run the streaming program.

Jamestown BPU Retool ’22 Conference Keynote Speaker John Ellis presents at Northwest Arena (October 19, 2022)

Retool ’22 Climate Tech Conference Keynote speaker John Ellis says exponential change is coming to the automotive industry.

Ellis, a best-selling author, software expert, and former global technologist with Ford Motor company, spoke at the Northwest Arena Wednesday morning. He told the audience that his presentation was intended to provoke.

Ellis said we’ve been in Transportation 1.0, which represents the individually owned vehicle business model with the majority of those vehicles having a combustion-engine. He said we’re now moving into Transportation 2.0, “It’s hallmark characteristics are a shared-vehicle ownership model, autonomy of some form and level, and most important – an electric vehicle.”

Ellis said individual ownership of cars is disappearing in the United States, citing a AAA study that it costs $10,728 a year to own and operate a vehicle and another study in larger markets that showed 66% of car trips are less than seven miles.

He said car sharing in China is booming, where over 150 million residents have a driver’s license but do not have a car, “We have a burgeoning growth over 10% of the economy (in China) that is shared vs. less than 1% here in the U.S. And they’re expecting to grow the sharing. Why is that significant? This past year, China was responsible for 30-something million vehicle units. U.S. used to be at it’s high 17 million and it’s now down to 15.5 and declining. China will serve as an over-sized indicator of where the market goes.”

Ellis said on top of electric vehicles being more efficient than fossil-fuel cars, policy is driving the move to EVs with enacted bans on combustion engines by 2035 by the European Union, China and even here in New York State, “You may say to yourself, ‘Do I really care about the E.U.?’ Well, let me be very, very, very clear. The E.U., specifically Germany, is home to the top three Tier 1’s in the world. If the top three Tier 1’s in the world are forced to become EV Tier 1’s, the auto industry by definition will go EV.”

Ellis said software plays an over-sized role in the change from fossil fuel to electric, saying how Tesla uses software to differentiate its products versus hardware. He referenced a KPMG report that stated by 2030 many of the major automakers won’t exist.

Ellis said exponential change has been seen with adoption of new technology and that people should expect it with transportation.

The EV Showcase is part of the BPU’s Retool ’22 Conference and will take place from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on West Second Street in front of the National Comedy Center. There is no cost to attend the showcase.

Showcase sponsor, Shults Auto Group, will have electric vehicles produced by Hyundai, Chevrolet, Nissan and Ford.

In addition to consumer and commercial EVs, a New Flyer XE40 electric bus, owned by the Niagara Frontier Transit Authority (NFTA), will be on display.

The NFTA took delivery of its first electric bus this summer from New Flyer, an international manufacturer with a supply chain plant located in Jamestown. The 40-foot electric bus will be tested in the Buffalo-area as the NFTA prepares to transition its fleet to reduce greenhouse gases in response to New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).

The conference will be held October 17 through 19 at the Northwest Arena in downtown Jamestown.

It will feature keynote speakers and panelists on a wide variety of climate technology manufacturing topics, including representatives from companies that have successfully navigated this market through new ventures or collaborations with larger manufacturers to address supply chain needs. This premier event will be preceded by a series of webinars that will target specific resource opportunities at the state and federal levels in the climate technology sector.

The conference is supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), through a multi-year grant to the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities.

New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, approved in 2019, sets aggressive targets for decarbonization and reduction of greenhouse gases by 2050 with ambitious clean energy goals, including 100% zero-emissions electricity by 2040. The conference will focus on the wide variety of opportunities that are available to manufacturers and suppliers in the Western Southern Tier for access to climate technology experts, innovators and investors who believe that the region can be a successful contributor in this emerging sector.

The conference link to register is: www.jamestownbpu.com/350/Business-Development.

In addition, the Governor directed the Department of Environmental Conservation to release a proposed regulation that would significantly reduce air pollution from trucks. If adopted, the regulation would accelerate zero-emission truck sales, with the intent of improving air quality statewide. The actions announced Wednesday in advance of Climate Week 2021 support New York’s ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent by 2050, as outlined in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, or CLCPA.

Under the new law, new off-road vehicles and equipment sold in New York are targeted to be zero-emissions by 2035, and new medium-duty and heavy-duty vehicles by 2045. The law also requires the development of a zero-emissions vehicle development strategy by 2023, which will be led by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to expedite the implementation of the State policies and programs necessary to achieve the law’s new goals.