New York State Energy Plan Could Lead to Higher Bills and More Dirty Energy

ALBANY, NY (12/16/2025) (readMedia)-- Today, the New York State Energy Planning Board approved its 2025 State Energy Plan, which advises new fossil fuel investments, leaves the door open for repowering fossil fuel plants, and projects only incremental progress in building new renewables. The 2025 State Energy Plan relies on data from the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), which Earthjustice has previously warned takes an unrigorous and problematic approach to its projections.

The State Energy Planning Board approved the 2025 plan despite the reality that fossil-burning generators are increasingly unreliable at the times the grid most needs resources, while solar and wind overperform expectations (p63-64). By advising further investment in unreliable fossil fuels, the new State Energy Plan could lead to higher energy bills and further spending on unreliable and unnecessary dirty energy, with harmful consequences to New Yorkers' lives and livelihoods.

The following statement is attributed to Liz Moran, New York Policy Advocate at Earthjustice:

"The State Energy Plan represents a serious lack of leadership at a critical moment for New York's affordable and clean energy future. Despite clear mandates under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), the plan disregards the Scoping Plan's recommendations and undermines the state's own climate commitments. New York must invest boldly in renewable energy now to lower long-term costs, protect public health, and strengthen its economy. Instead, this plan locks New Yorkers into continued fossil fuel dependence and delays the transition to clean energy, an approach that will drive up costs, harm communities, and jeopardize the state's climate mandates."

New York leaders have repeatedly failed to follow through on building new clean energy infrastructure. The 175-mile Clean Path NY transmission line, which would bring 1,300 MW into New York City, was indefinitely delayed by New York's Public Service Commission earlier this year. In addition to delaying Clean Path, in July, the New York State Public Service Commission also abandoned efforts on a transmission project to connect multiple offshore wind farms to provide clean energy and meet growing demand. That project could have lowered costs to produce electricity by $40 to $70 billion from 2033 to 2052. That's on top of the approximately 50,000 MW of mostly clean energy projects stuck in the NYISO generator interconnection queue, and the possibilities for surplus interconnection, which would connect new renewable energy to the power grid quickly and could be built faster and cheaper than new gas.

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Earthjustice is the nation's leading environmental law organization. As a nonprofit, our attorneys fight for everyone's right to a healthy environment, because we believe the earth needs a good lawyer.

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