Industry witness tells Senate energy committee the clean‑energy transition needs detailed modeling, suggests combined‑cycle retooling and carbon capture

Summary

An energy-industry witness told the Senate Standing Committee on Energy and Telecommunications that New York’s current planning for rapid electrification and storage is under‑modelled and could be very costly; he urged the committee to study combined‑cycle retooling and carbon capture alongside renewables and storage.

State Senator Kevin Parker opened the committee hearing by introducing guest witness Rich Allen Logan, who described himself as an electrical engineer with a Cornell bachelor’s and master’s degree and as a business owner who has built and operated highly energy‑efficient industrial and residential facilities.

Logan told the committee that New York’s push to electrify buildings and transportation and to replace fossil generators with intermittent wind and solar requires more detailed technical and logistical modeling. He said concerns include limits in workforce availability, transformer and materials supply chains, the short life span of current lithium‑ion battery systems and the high capital expense of grid‑scale storage.

“This is not a partisan issue to me. This is an issue purely an issue of science and physics,” Logan said, adding that some academic papers and models he reviewed rely on assumptions he considers flawed.

Why it matters: Committee members debating the Just Energy Transition Act…

Industry witness tells Senate energy committee the clean‑energy transition needs detailed modeling, suggests combined‑cycle retooling and carbon capture

Summary

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