About 65 per cent of power generators that emit greenhouse gases in New York State are within one mile of a disadvantaged community. Nearly one million people in New York City, most of them members of racialized communities, are living within one mile of the most polluting power plants used during peak demand for electricity.
Those estimates are found in a new report from the Washington-based think tank Resources for the Future (RFF), in collaboration with the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA). The issue brief explores how New York’s cap-trade-and-invest system could better reduce the disproportionate burden of fossil fuel combustion on disadvantaged communities.
In a news release introducing the analysis, Resources for the Future wrote:
The analysis explores the emissions effects of requiring power-sector facilities to purchase allowances under the program as well as capping carbon dioxide emissions from individual power plants. The research team hopes that this new policy analysis will inform the state as it finalizes its cap-trade-and-invest regulations and seeks to meet the emissions-reduction mandates in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
The analysis reveals that including the power sector in the cap-trade-and-invest program as well as implementing facility-specific caps offer the greatest power-sector greenhouse gas and copollutant emissions improvements compared to excluding the power sector and not using facility-specific caps. These combined policies create the most emissions benefits statewide and for areas surrounding disadvantaged communities.
The issue brief also finds that if the state ultimately decides to not require power-sector facilities to purchase allowances in a cap-trade-and-invest program, facility-specific caps become even more important in reducing fine particulate matter and other pollutants that harm disadvantaged communities.
“Prioritizing Justice in New York’s Cap-Trade-and-Invest: Obligating Electricity and Capping Generator Emissions,” by Molly Robertson (RFF), Eunice Ko (NYC-EJA), Eddie Bautista (NYC-EJA), Alan Krupnick (RFF), and Wesley Look (RFF), resources for the Future, June 17, 2024.
Download the full issue brief originally published by Resources for the Future on June 17, 2024.
