Energy Policy Recommendations for Mayor-Elect Mamdani

SUMMARY

The Energy Committee (Rich Miller, Co- Chair) issued energy policy recommendations to the incoming mayoral administration urging New York City to establish a centralized Department of Energy, led by a Commissioner, to better advance a clean, affordable, and reliable energy system. While the City and State have adopted ambitious climate and emissions-reduction laws, the City’s fragmented governance structure limits effective planning, coordination, implementation, and advocacy on energy issues.

The memo argues that the clean energy transition will be lengthy, costly, and complex, requiring sustained leadership across multiple administrations. A dedicated Department of Energy would consolidate existing energy functions, strengthen the City’s ability to manage its own energy use, and improve advocacy before State and Federal regulators. The Committee proposes that the Department include three core functions: energy policy and advocacy, energy efficiency and project implementation, and energy market and policy analysis. Centralizing these roles would enable better decision-making, clearer communication with the public, and a more effective balancing of climate, affordability, and reliability goals.

REPORT

REPORT BY THE ENERGY COMMITTEE

ENERGY POLICY RECOMMENDATION RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED TO MAYOR-ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI

I. INTRODUCTION

The New York City Bar Association Energy Committee supports the development of a clean, affordable, and reliable energy system for New York City (and reliability is especially important for New York City). While New York City is part of a much larger grid, which is regulated at the State and Federal levels, it can take direct actions to further the goals of clean, affordable, and reliable, as well as advocating before State and Federal policymakers to achieve its goals. However, the City has, to date, been limited in its capacity to achieve these goals because it does not have a centralized energy department or agency with a Commissioner level head. Such an entity would also enable the City to analyze options for balancing the competing goals of making energy clean, affordable, and reliable, and thereby inform decisions about how to pursue those goals. The New York City Bar Association Energy Committee accordingly recommends the City create a Department of Energy that would include three groups: (1) the current energy policy group in the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice (MOECJ); (2) an energy efficiency implementation group that would assume the energy-related functions currently performed by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS); and (3) an energy market and policy analysis group that would provide sound advice to the Mayor on how to best implement energy policy at the City level.

Starting in 2019, New York State and the City adopted laws that aimed to decisively shift energy use toward cleaner resources. This includes the State’s flagship law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), and the City’s laws, especially Local Law 97, which seeks to have buildings reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. While the CLCPA contains ambitious goals, it also acknowledges that the energy transition must be balanced against reliability and affordability concerns.[1] Moreover, practically speaking, achieving the emissions-reduction goals means retrofitting millions of buildings and replacing even more machines, as well as altering past approaches to infrastructure and land use. This will require investing billions of dollars over decades; managing and staging the transition effectively will be critical so that the City and its residents are not burdened with costs that could have been avoided through thoughtful planning.

Implementation at both the State and City levels have been met with multiple challenges, such as Covid, inflation, and current federal government policies. The clean energy transition is continuing notwithstanding these current headwinds because it is necessary to mitigate climate change along with providing other clean energy benefits. As stated above, the Committee supports the City’s efforts towards the long-term goal of its residents to be served by an energy system that is clean,[2] affordable, and reliable. The pace and steps involved in this transition are uncertain as government policies and market forces continue to evolve as well as the mix of energy generation (centralized and distributed, thermal and renewable), transmission and storage, as well as energy efficiency, buildings, and transportation investments. What is certain is that the City’s energy system is not going to become affordable, reliable, and 100% clean quickly. Over time, achievement of all three goals is possible, but it will take many years and substantial resources and span multiple administrations (this is why a permanent agency is required). The City’s goals, however, must be carefully established and communicated to the public together with an explanation of the expected benefits to be enjoyed and burdens to be shouldered. Finally, it must be understood that achievement of these goals is principally an energy system problem that requires a Department of Energy with an energy expert as Commissioner who will aid the City in developing and implementing policies during this long transition.

To work toward achieving these goals effectively, the City has several tasks that require higher-level and coordinated authority: formulate sound local energy policy, advocate for that policy at the State and Federal levels when appropriate and implement clean energy projects for City government facilities. Establishing[3] a new Department of Energy would support each of these tasks. Centralizing functions in a Department devoted to energy that has a leader with Commissioner status would make the City’s energy-related decision-making over the City’s electric, gas and steam systems more efficient and effective both internally and externally.

II. EXISTING CITY STRUCTURE

The City’s legal authority with respect to resources related to the clean energy transition has limits. It is not responsible for overall regulation of its electric and gas systems. It does, however, have substantial authority over buildings and an important advocate’s voice on a wide variety of issues. Finally, the City’ has substantial energy purchasing power that it can exercise to advance the clean energy transition.[4]

The current structure of the City’s energy-related governance is as follows:

• The Division of Energy Management within DCAS manages City government facilities energy consumption, clean energy development on City-owned properties and buildings, and energy efficiency/building electrification projects across the City government portfolio.
• The MOCEJ merged all the previous climate and environmental justice offices including the Offices of Utility Coordination, Environmental Coordination, Environmental Remediation and Urban Agriculture. It also leads on City climate resiliency efforts.
• MOCEJ leads on Local Law 97 (the City’s building greenhouse gas emissions law), coordinates with the Department of Buildings and the Law Department’s Environmental Law Division on litigation, providing testimony at hearings, and joining coalitions to move forward on legal strategies.
• MOCEJ doesn’t have its own budget for clean energy projects and doesn’t currently have authority to procure/originate energy projects.

The City accordingly has dispersed offices that manage energy consumption and energy policy matters, even though these matters are related. There are weaknesses resulting from the City’s current decentralized structure without a Commissioner devoted to energy:

• Challenges formulating and pursuing energy-related measures: Lack of clear and consistent approach to advocacy for City interests before State and federal agencies that regulate energy;
• Institutional gap: Lack of a coherent institutional structure such that recognition of opportunities does not translate to pursuit of capital projects that can enable clean energy technology deployments; and
• Lack of a highly experienced and knowledgeable advisor to provide direct assistance to the Mayor and City in formulating and implementing energy policies and practices aimed at reasonably achieving the goals of a clean, affordable, and reliable energy supply.

III. RECOMMENDATION: THE CITY SHOULD ESTABLISH A DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

The City’s ability to manage and increase its resources addressing energy policy and City practices would be enhanced if it had a centralized Department of Energy with a Commissioner head that would have authority to advance energy policy to achieve City goals. Its primary focus would be the City’s electric, gas and steam systems and the City government’s consumption of those resources.

As stated in the Introduction, this Department, if created, should have three groups to pursue its goals of a clean, affordable and reliable energy supply: (1) the current energy policy group in the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, which would be the lead on advocacy on energy issues before federal and state agencies with jurisdiction over electric, gas and steam, especially the New York State Public Service Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; (2) an energy efficiency implementation group that would assume the functions currently performed by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services; and (3) an energy market and policy analysis group that would provide sound advice to the Mayor on how to best implement energy policy at the City level.[5]

Energy Law Committee*
Rich Miller, Co-Chair

December 2025

*Committee members Robert Craig and Khadeya Penson did not participate in the preparation or approval of this transition memo.