The New York State Senate

 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   6604
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                              April 28, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by Sen. HARCKHAM -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Environmental Conservation
 
 AN ACT to amend the  environmental  conservation  law,  in  relation  to
   exempting  certain  geothermal boreholes at depths beyond five hundred
   feet from certain requirements

   THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1. Legislative findings and declaration. The legislature here-
 by finds and declares that:
   1. The climate leadership and community protection act establishes the
 goal  of  reducing  statewide greenhouse gas emission levels by 40% from
 1990 levels by 2030 and 85% by the  year  2050  and  achieving  net-zero
 emissions  statewide  by  2050.  The  climate  leadership  and community
 protection act further created and tasked  the  climate  action  council
 with  developing  a  final  scoping  plan  outlining recommendations for
 attaining New York's statewide greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals.
   2. The climate action council's  final  scoping  plan  recognized  the
 electrification  of buildings - particularly through the installation of
 closed-loop geothermal heating and cooling systems - as a  key  strategy
 to achieve the widespread decarbonization of buildings that is necessary
 to achieve the climate leadership and community protection act goals.
   3.  The final scoping plan identifies that appropriate regulations and
 permit fees are not in place for geothermal boreholes deeper  than  five
 hundred  feet and should be developed by the department of environmental
 conservation.  Specifically,  the  department  applies  its  regulations
 developed  for  oil  and gas wells to geothermal wells greater than five
 hundred feet deep, even though closed-loop geothermal boreholes  do  not
 involve  injection  into  or  extraction from the ground and thus do not
 pose an impact adverse to the environment  comparable  to  oil  and  gas
 wells.    The department's existing regulations also apply on a per-well
 basis, thereby  adding  significant  cost  and  permitting  barriers  to
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD10951-02-3

 S. 6604                             2
 
 ground-source   heat  pump  installations  and  thermal  energy  network
 projects that benefit from installing multiple boreholes  to  distribute
 heat.
   4.  Extension of the permitting rules currently applied to closed-loop
 geothermal systems less than  five  hundred  feet  deep  to  closed-loop
 geothermal  boreholes deeper than five hundred feet will reduce the cost
 of meeting New York state's  building  decarbonization  requirements  by
 nearly $9.9 billion by 2050; reduce the cost of meeting the state's goal
 of electrifying one million homes by 2030 by approximately $900 million;
 and reduce the cost of electrifying 85% of the state's building stock by
 approximately  $9  billion  between  2030  and 2050, in 2023 dollars. In
 nominal dollars, the total cost savings increase  to  $16.3  billion  by
 2050.
   5.  Extension of the permitting rules currently applied to closed-loop
 geothermal systems less than five hundred feet deep  to  such  boreholes
 deeper  than  five  hundred  feet will obviate unnecessary technical and
 permitting barriers, open new markets to clean heating and cooling tech-
 nologies in densely populated regions, and enable drastically  increased
 leverage   of  federal  funding  to  meet  New  York  state's  emissions
 reductions targets.
   § 2. The opening paragraph of subdivision 14 of section 23-0305 of the
 environmental conservation law, as added by chapter 410 of the  laws  of
 1987, is amended to read as follows:
   With  respect to wells drilled deeper than five hundred feet below the
 earth's surface for the purpose of conducting stratigraphic  tests,  for
 finding or producing hot water or steam, for injecting fluids to recover
 heat  from  the  surrounding geologic materials, WHICH SHALL NOT INCLUDE
 CLOSED-LOOP BOREHOLES INSTALLED FOR THE PURPOSE OF FACILITATING A GEOTH-
 ERMAL HEATING OR COOLING SYSTEM, or for  the  disposal  of  brines,  the
 department shall have the power to:
   § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.