Comment on “Green Overload” – an Issue Brief by the Empire Center
The Empire Center recently released an Issue Brief entitled “Green Overload: New York State’s Ratepayer-Zapping Renewable Energy Mandate” (September 2016) that criticizes the state’s Clean Energy Standard (CES), questioning its cost, feasibility, and significance. The authors claim that the CES will cost New York ratepayers $3.4 billion over the first 5 years. The Brattle Group has reviewed “Green Overload” and found that it errs by considering only the program’s direct costs and failing to account for its benefits. The program’s effect on wholesale power prices, which we analyzed in our December 2015 report, means that on balance, the CES will actually save ratepayers money and create substantial net economic benefits, as well as the environmental benefits that motivate the program.
