New York Can Meet Its Energy Needs without a New Pipeline

The policy brief contends that the proposed $1 billion Northeast Supply Enhancement Project (NESE) gas pipeline is incompatible with New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). It argues that a 'no infrastructure' approach—combining energy efficiency, electrification (specifically heat pumps), and demand response—is a more cost-effective and reliable path to meeting energy needs while reducing emissions. The author asserts that National Grid's cost analysis underestimates the benefits of customer-focused solutions by ignoring air conditioner cost savings, externality costs of pollution, and the long-term savings beyond a 15-year net present value calculation.

• The proposed Northeast Supply Enhancement Project (NESE) gas pipeline is inconsistent with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which mandates emissions reductions of 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030 and 85 percent by 2050.
• Customer-focused solutions, specifically energy efficiency and electrification, are the only viable path to achieving the state's required emissions cuts because they directly reduce gas use and fossil fuel emissions.
• National Grid's cost analysis of the NESE pipeline likely underestimates the cost-effectiveness of the 'no infrastructure' alternative by omitting several factors: the cost of additional investments needed to align the pipeline scenario with climate goals, the long-term savings beyond a 15-year NPV window, the avoided cost of air conditioners when installing heat pumps, and the externality costs of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
• Alternative energy sources such as biomethane (RNG), hydrogen, and synthetic methane are insufficient to solve the downstate supply gap, as they would cover less than 5 percent of the gap in a high-demand scenario.
• Transitioning to energy efficiency and electrification would provide public health benefits by reducing premature mortality linked to building air pollution and would stimulate the downstate economy through local job creation.

APA

RMI (2020). New York Can Meet Its Energy Needs without a New Pipeline. https://rmi.org/resources/new-york-can-meet-its-energy-needs-without-a-new-pipeline/

Chicago

RMI. New York Can Meet Its Energy Needs without a New Pipeline. 2020. https://rmi.org/resources/new-york-can-meet-its-energy-needs-without-a-new-pipeline/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=New York Can Meet Its Energy Needs without a New Pipeline |date=28 February 2020 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/new-york-can-meet-its-energy-needs-without-a-new-pipeline/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2020new, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{New York Can Meet Its Energy Needs without a New Pipeline}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2020}, month = feb, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/new-york-can-meet-its-energy-needs-without-a-new-pipeline/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }