Brian Tumulty

POU

WASHINGTON – New York can comply with an Obama administration proposal to reduce carbon emissions by 2030 by becoming more energy efficient, relying more on natural gas and modifying coal-fired power plants, environmentalists say.

"These targets are very reasonable," David Hawkins, director of climate programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Tuesday. "They have a lot of headroom."

At first blush, the proposal appears to require drastic action by New York, calling for a 44-percent reduction in carbon emissions per megawatt hour by 2030. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates New York's power plants produced 983 pounds of carbon pollution per megawatt hour of electricity in 2012. The EPA wants that brought down to 549 pounds by 2030.

But the state already is considering some steps that would achieve the targeted goal. The draft New York State Energy Plan circulating in Albany includes a 50-percent reduction in carbon intensity by 2030 that uses 2010 as the baseline. The EPA uses 2012.

Coal-fired utility plants are the largest source of carbon emissions, but New York generates only 3.3 percent of its electricity from coal. Indiana, on the other hand, relies on coal for 80 percent of its electricity.

However, New York could be credited with a reduction in carbon emissions per kilowatt hour if existing power plants operating on natural gas run at a higher rate than their current 51 percent average capacity. Natural gas supplies 43.8 percent of New York's electricity.

The state also could achieve compliance through its membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an organization of 10 New England and mid-Atlantic states that already has reduced fossil-fuels pollution by 40 percent since 2005.

Which path the state will choose is unclear. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation declined to comment Tuesday on the proposed federal regulation.

Kenneth Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said states involved in the RGGI may already be in compliance with the proposed EPA regulation because of targets they have set for further reductions in carbon emissions by 2020. RGGI holds quarterly auctions for the purchase and sale of carbon credits used for emissions by fossil power plants and annually reduces the total number of credits.

Louis Derry, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University, characterized the administration proposal as "not onerous on New York." He pointed to the health benefits from improved air quality and a reduction in acid rain from coal-fired power plants in the Midwest.

Alternatively, New York could adopt a mixed approach that would require only a 6-percent reduction in carbon emissions at coal-fired plants, which could be attained by modernizing the plants, according to Hawkins at the NRDC.

Hawkins said such an approach could include running natural gas power plants 70 percent of the time instead of the current 51 percent. The state also could credit for reducing emissions per megawatt hour by achieving a 1.5-percent annual improvement in energy efficiency. A fourth step would involve greater reliance on renewable energy sources.

Reaction to the administration's proposal has been positive from Democrats in the state's congressional delegation. Republican House members have not yet weighed in.

Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer described the proposal as "a common-sense and measured way" to address climate change.

"As we've experienced recently with major weather-related disasters upstate and down(state), as well as past instances of acid rain ruining our lakes and forests, global warming can challenge our very well-being," he said in a statement Tuesday.

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand also cited the importance of acting.

"New Yorkers have seen firsthand the effects of climate change, including stronger storms, rising seas, and harmful invasive species threatening our natural resources," she said.

Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel of the Bronx noted that parts of his congressional district in the north Bronx and southern Westchester County have some of the highest rates of asthma in the nation.

"The demands we are putting on our planet have reached the tipping point, and we have to find a way to correct that imbalance," Engel said.

The draft environmental regulation announced Monday gives New York the option of achieving compliance on its own or doing so as part of a regional cooperative of states, according to Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Ernesta Jones.

The emissions targets proposed by the administration differ from state to state depending on energy demands and sources in each state.

"Most importantly, a lower state goal does not necessarily mean 'doing more,'" Jones said an in email. "For example, some states have already made commitments for coming years that will put them on track to meet their state goals."

Brian Tumulty: btumulty@gannett.com Twitter: @NYinDC