On August 16, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which the World Economic Forum describes as “the most meaningful climate bill ever passed in the US.” ACE NY, along with the New York League of Conservation Voters, AES, and other partners, held a cocktail party during Climate Week NYC 2022 to celebrate and discuss the IRA with other industry leaders.

As efforts to site grid-scale renewable energy projects increase, attention has shifted to state staffing levels as a possible hindrance to meeting New York’s ambitious climate goals.

The September 15 OSW Developers Meet and Greet Networking Forum, hosted more than 80 civic leaders on Long Island to hear from offshore wind project developers on their aspirations to meet New York’s nation-leading goal of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.

Empire Wind and the Wildlife Conservation Society announced the extension to 2028 of their historic agreement to monitor large whales in the lease area of Empire Wind, an offshore wind project located off the southern coast of Long Island.

On September 2, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that Binghamton University will receive $113.7 million in funding to create Battery-NY as a cutting-edge technology development, manufacturing, and commercialization energy storage hub.

On July 25, a siting permit was granted for Cider Solar, New York’s largest solar facility to be permitted to date. Cider Solar Farm is a 500-megawatt (MW) facility under development with Hecate Energy in the towns of Elba and Oakfield in Genesee County, NY. It is expected to power more than 125,000 homes and reduce carbon emissions by 462,000 tons each year.

In order to achieve its ambitious climate goals, New York State must make significant and rapid progress in its deployment of renewable energy. An important step in this process is environmental review and permitting. Because ACE NY has been actively involved in highlighting problems and delays in permitting, we wanted to check in to see how things were going.

ACE NY is part of a broad coalition of environmental groups working to improve electric vehicle (EV) access to create a fair and open EV market in New York. As the state pushes towards its goal of phasing out sales of new internal combustion vehicles by 2035, one of the most important considerations is making sure New Yorkers can learn about, test drive, and buy electric vehicles in their home state by as many methods as possible.