Bill to Alter NY’s Climate Law Includes 11th-Hour Bid to Keep State’s Last Biomass Power Plant Open
Environmental groups were rattled last month by the introduction of legislation that seeks to change how the state’s 2019 Climate Act accounts for greenhouse gas emissions. But the new bill also sneaks in another clause that many overlooked.
It suggests changing the definition of what is considered renewable energy under the state law to include electricity produced from burning wastes like cow manure—a process known as “anaerobic digestion”—and wood, a process known as “forest bio power” or forest biomass. The move aims to stop the shutdown this spring of ReEnergy Black River, the last biomass power plant with a government contract left standing in New York.
“Elected officials have been lobbying the state to provide funding for this facility and keep it operating using very disturbing language that claims forest biomass is clean,” said Laura Haight, U.S. policy director at Partnership for Policy Integrity (PFPI), an environmental organization that opposes efforts to keep the plant alive.
City Limits’ local, investigative journalism has informed and empowered New Yorkers for 46 years. Your generous donation will enable us to keep looking out for New York’s most vulnerable.
Will you support our independent journalism today?
