New York passes its own version of Green New Deal with aggressive goals

Bloomberg

New York’s Senate has passed the state’s own version of the Green New Deal — a climate bill that will set the most aggressive clean energy target in the country, more than triple the state’s solar capacity and unleash wind power off the coast.
The legislation, which was approved 41-21 and is expected to clear the Democratic-led Assembly, would boost the amount of solar power in New York to 6 gigawatts by 2025 from about 1.7 gigawatts currently. It also calls for 9 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2035. None of the state’s electricity currently comes from offshore wind.
The bill codifies New York’s goal of getting all of its electricity from emission-free sources by 2040, putting the state ahead of all others that have set clean-energy standards — even progressive California, which has targeted 100 percent clean power by 2045. It also calls for an 85 percent reduction in economy-wide emissions from 1990 levels by 2050. In promoting the plan during a recent radio program, Cuomo called it “the most aggressive in the country.”
“It’s definitely the most progressive bill that we’ve seen anywhere,’’ Miles Farmer, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an interview.
Exactly how New York will pull off such an ambitious plan remains to be seen. Utility executives across the US have warned that a 100 percent green grid is impossible using current technologies, and the state lawmakers who passed the bill will be long gone from office before the 2045 deadline.
Comparing New York’s plan to those of other states “is beside the point,” said Ethan Zindler, head of Americas research for BloombergNEF. “The question is can it be done and will there be follow-through?”
The measure does give New York’s regulators a blueprint that may lead to stricter pollution limits for power plants and incentives to phase out oil and natural gas from home heating systems. Industry groups including the Business Council of New York State have raised
concerns about the potentially higher costs for manufacturing.