Phillips Lytle Partner and Team Leader of the firm’s Environmental Practice, David P. Flynn, was recognized, for the second year in a row, as a power leader on City & State’s 2022 Energy & Environment Power 100 list. Ranking at #68, Mr. Flynn has been identified as a key player in New York who is helping to reshape the energy industry and rescue our environment.
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New York State Public Service Commission Flexes “Just and Reasonable” Muscle to Impose Sweeping Reforms to Energy Marketplace
The New York State Public Service Commission (“Commission”) leveraged an unprecedented interpretation of its “just and reasonable” regulatory authority to impose drastic changes to the retail energy marketplace, which will have ripple effects on Renewable Energy Credit (REC) markets, retail energy contracts, Distributed Energy Resource (DER) providers and other clean technology stakeholders. The Commission’s Order
Reset 2.0?
Public Service Commission Resets Retail Energy Marketplace:
All ESCOs Required to Re-Register Under New Rules and Completely Revise Product Offerings
On December 12, 2019, the New York State Public Service Commission (“Commission”) voted to reset the retail energy marketplace by requiring all Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) to re-register for eligibility to serve customers. While the final order remains to be issued, the Department of Public Service (DPS) explained that as part of the re-registration process, it will subject each ESCO to new eligibility requirements and require all ESCOs to modify their product offerings to fit one of four categories.
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New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Announces the Adoption of Revisions to the Regulations that Implement the State Environmental Quality Review Act
Last Thursday, Basil Seggos, the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (“NYSDEC”) announced the first major update to New York’s State Environmental Quality Review Act (“SEQRA”) regulations in over 20 years. SEQRA establishes a process to systematically consider environmental factors early in the planning stages of actions that are directly undertaken, funded or approved by local or state agencies. Seggos believes the updates will “streamline the environmental review process and encourage sustainable development and renewable energy development without sacrificing SEQRA’s integrity or the environmental protection it affords.”
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A 360 for NY’s Part 360 Regulations: Overhauled Solid Waste Program to Take Effect November 2017
The much-anticipated final version of the comprehensive revisions to New York’s Solid Waste Management Program was released on September 20, 2017. Initially proposed in early 2016 after two rounds of public comments, multiple hearings, and a second round of revisions issued over the summer, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (“NYSDEC’s”) new rules are set to take effect on November 4, 2017. Besides expected changes for solid waste landfills and waste transporters, noteworthy changes include stricter
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EPA Administrator Takes Aim at Aging Superfund Sites
Despite condoning a 34 percent cut to his agency’s funding for fiscal year 2018, U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt this week announced a seemingly ambitious plan to expedite the federal Superfund process to address the roughly 1,300 sites listed on the National Priorities List. Characterizing these sites as “languishing,” Pruitt promised that the “days of talking are over,” and that EPA would take immediate action to accelerate cleanup efforts nationwide.
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NYSDEC Set to Propose Revisions to the Brownfield Cleanup Program: A Preview of Changes
A preview of at least some of the proposed revisions to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (“NYSDEC”) regulations for the Brownfield Cleanup Program (“BCP”) (6 N.Y.C.R.R. Part 375) was revealed in May 2017, with official release anticipated later this year. Key changes are expected to include new program and tax credit eligibility requirements as well as clarifications to aspects of program implementation, all in an effort to provide more consistency across remedial programs and to generally update the BCP, now over a decade old.
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Significant Changes Proposed for NYSDEC’s SEQRA Regulations
Four years after beginning the process, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (“NYSDEC”) issued its proposed amendments to the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (“SEQRA”) regulations (“SEQRA Regulations”). According to NYSDEC, the “principal purpose of the amendments is to streamline the SEQR[A] process without sacrificing meaningful environmental review.”
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NY DPS Staff Report on Value of DER
The New York Department of Public Service Staff released a complex report of recommendations to the New York Public Service Commission on how to properly value distributed energy resources (“DERs”) as the state transitions away from net energy metering (“NEM”). Reforms to NEM—which credits distributed generation at the retail rate of electricity—have been a controversial topic in numerous states as utilities warn of revenue losses and customer cross-subsidies caused by outdated rate designs that do not properly calculate the costs and benefits of NEM to the grid.
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Flint Water Crisis Produces Criminal Charges Against State and Local Officials
Just three months after Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced his intent to investigate the circumstances surrounding Flint, Michigan’s water crisis, the state filed criminal charges on Wednesday against two state environmental quality officials and a city utilities administrator for their apparent roles in the crisis. Specifically, the state claims the workers, among other things, tampered with evidence contained in reports on lead levels in city water, conspired to tamper with monitoring reports and violated the Safe Drinking Water Act. The charges filed by the state are serious and carry stiff penalties, including up to two to five years in prison. Even so, Attorney General Schuette, in announcing the charges, maintained that “[t]hese charges are only the beginning” and “there will be more to come – that I [Schuette] can guarantee you.”
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