Senate Bill S5180

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S5180

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the administrative code of the city
of New York, in relation to the authority to contract for energy

 PURPOSE :

The purpose of this bill is to prevent discrimination against
ratepayers and electric generating facilities located in New York
State. The discrimination would arise as a result of the City of New
York contracting to acquire energy, or environmental attributes
associated with energy, that is generated by electric generating
facilities located outside of the country and is delivered over
transmission lines that do not provide access to electric generating
facilities in New York State to transmit their energy within New York
State. Those contracts would provide revenue from the City's taxpayers
for the construction of new transmission facilities connecting
electric generation facilities located outside of the United States
with the City of New York without allowing generators located in New
York State to connect into the new transmission facilities.

This bill requires that any new transmission lines constructed in New
York State to supply the City of New York with electricity generated
by electric generating facilities located outside of the country, must
also provide access to electric generating facilities in New York
State.
              

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1 of this bill would apply to energy transmitted over an
electric transmission line that: (1) may be, but is not limited to, a
high voltage direct current electric transmission line; (2) enters
commercial operation after the effective date of this act; (3)
connects a location outside of the Unites States to a location within
New York State; and (4) does not provide access within New York State
for the state's electric generating facilities also to transmit their
energy over the line to a location in New York state.

Section 1 of the bill would prohibit the City of New York from
contracting for or otherwise buying energy, or environmental
attributes associated with energy, transmitted over such an electric
transmission line, from the New York Power Authority, any company, the
State of New York, any municipal entity, or any other legal entity.

Section 2 of the bill provides for an immediate effective date of
these provisions.

 JUSTIFICATION :

The ability of the City of New York to enter into contracts involves
the use of its buying power and leverage to command the kinds of goods
and services that it desires. The City's economic strength should be
used to send signals to markets to help achieve a public purpose that
benefits New York State as a whole and is in the public interest.

Transmission lines that originate outside the territorial limits of
the United States, and that do not provide access to electric
generating facilities in New York to transmit energy within New York
state do not sufficiently benefit New York State. These lines do not
sufficiently encourage employment opportunities or economic
development within the state, and such transmission lines harm energy
consumers and electric generating facilities in New York.
Transmission projects such as these will: (1) discourage the building
of new generating facilities, especially renewable energy resources,
in New York State, and transmission lines to transmit energy generated
in New York state to where it is needed; (2) discourage the repowering
of existing generating facilities within New York State to reduce
emissions further in this state; and (3) discourage the rebuilding of
existing transmission lines in the state to transmit energy from
Upstate to Downstate. Construction and development of transmission
lines that provide access to generators in New York State maximizes
employment and economic development in New York State and in our
nation. Yet, the City of New York is considering buying new energy
supplies from Canada that will be delivered over a transmission line
that does not provide access to electric generating facilities in New
York state, instead of using its economic strength to encourage new
electric generation and transmission investment by project developers
in this state.

In September of 2016, the Office of Sustainability under New York City
Mayor Bill de Blasio issued its "Roadmap to 80 x 50," which
acknowledges that the City issued its 2015 Renewable Energy Request
for Information (RFI). The document noted that the City is speaking
with project developers seeking to import renewable energy from
outside the City via high voltage direct current transmission lines.
An example of a proposed high voltage direct current transmission line
is the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) transmission line
proposed by Transmission Developers Inc. (TDI). The CHPE project is a
proposed 333 mile high voltage direct current transmission line that
would originate in Quebec, Canada, and come into New York State and
down to New York City. The line would bypass existing and new electric
generating facilities in New York State, including renewable energy
resources; instead, the line would transmit 1,000 megawatts (MW) of
primarily Canadian hydropower directly from Canada into New York City.
The CHPE project was proposed years ago, but it was never built due to
staggering costs, projected at well over $2 billion. In fact, the
project is so uneconomic that the only way it could be built is if it
were to receive subsidies, most likely from New York ratepayers or the
City's taxpayers.

In September of 2015, TDI provided its response to the City's 2015
Renewable Energy RFI and proposed, as one option, its CHPE high
voltage direct current transmission line project to provide access to
hydropower and wind energy resources in Canada by interconnecting the
province of Quebec with the City. If the City of New York were to
enter into a contract to buy energy that is transmitted over the CHPE
line, the contract would provide the huge subsidy from the City's
taxpayers that would be needed for this otherwise uneconomic
transmission line to be built.

As the United States moves toward supporting procurement that favors
American-made resources at both the national and state levels, the
City's contracting power should not be used to enable projects that
would import energy from another country while preventing access to
electric generating facilities in New York when greater value is
derived by investing in New York's own electric system and the
economic benefits, tax revenues, and jobs those generation and
transmission resources provide to their local communities. New York
State and the City of New York cannot afford to send those jobs and
revenues to Canada, and such an action would not be in the public
interest.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

New Bill

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect immediately.