Governor Hochul has further delayed what amounts to a tax on energy until after the next general election. 

Almost six years after the state adopted an aggressive emissions-cutting agenda and more than a year after its most impactful regulations were to be in place, Hochul has pushed a central component — a proposed cap and invest program for greenhouse gas emissions — into a data-gathering phase that won’t be complete for two more years, five months after she hopes to be sworn in for her second term.

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) published proposed regulations today for the state’s Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. The document runs 340 pages and sets out the data reporting DEC deems necessary for setting up the Empire State’s cap and invest program. Inside those pages, it sets a deadline for qualifying greenhouse gas emitters to report their annual emissions starting June 1, 2027. 

Cap and invest is a planned program to help the state and its greenhouse gas emitters achieve emissions reductions goals set out in the Climate Leadership and Protection Act (CLCPA) passed in 2019. Under the CLCPA, the state is aiming to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent of 1990 levels by 2050 (along with the state generating 70 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030 and 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040). 

The Legislature tasked DEC with establishing the rules and regulations needed to meet the CLCPA targets by January 1, 2024. Those rules and regulations could include measures to limit or reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions OR “establish an alternative compliance mechanism to be used by sources subject to greenhouse gas emissions limits to achieve net zero emissions.”

The proposed alternative compliance mechanism is a cap and invest program. DEC is seeking public comment on rules for emissions reporting to provide baseline data that won’t be collected until June 1, 2027. DEC then expects data reporting to provide “an essential framework for a cap-and-invest program.” DEC further assures the public and emphasizes that “[t]he Reporting Program is a reporting-only regulation.”

DEC’s schedule is good news for energy users big and small who may in the short term be saving the burden of bearing additional costs from cap and invest. But it’s bad news for greenhouse gas emitters planning future cost inputs for their businesses. And it’s bad news for for the CLCPA proponents who thought there would be rules in place for limiting or reducing emissions more than a year ago.