NYC’s big, clean power line is officially up and running

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New York City has a lot to celebrate this week. The Knicks are in the finals, the Mets actually won a game, and the city is now a big step closer to meeting its clean energy targets.

Tons of clean electricity is finally flowing from Canada to New York City via the 1.25-gigawatt Champlain Hudson Power Express, a big power line also known as CHPE (pronounced ​“chippy”). The city is now able to power all of its government operations and cover 20% of citywide electricity demand — equivalent to that from 1 million homes — with hydro shipped in by utility Hydro-Québec.

CHPE, along with the eventual completion of the Empire Wind project off Brooklyn, is essential to attaining New York City’s goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050. Last year, the city got nearly 90% of its electricity from fossil fuels, and just a measly 3% from hydro.

It’s a long journey from Quebec down to Queens, but it’s been an even longer one to get the power line built. Plans for CHPE began more than a decade ago, and the project faced opposition from environmental groups and residents as discussions progressed. But in the end, CHPE came online a few weeks earlier than expected, just in time to shore up power supplies ahead of summer’s demand spikes.

CHPE is one of two major transmission projects that recently launched to bring Canadian hydropower into the Northeastern U.S. Electricity started flowing into Maine via the New England Clean Energy Connect line earlier this year, capping a decade of controversy that saw the project scuttled and relocated multiple times.

But other challenges remain for both New England Clean Energy Connect and CHPE. Some experts are questioning whether Hydro-Québec can actually generate enough electricity to share with the U.S. When all these transmission line discussions first started, Hydro-Québec was running on 15 years of abundant rain flow, Pierre-Olivier Pineau, a professor of energy sector management at HEC Montréal, tells Marketplace. Over the past three years, though, the province has faced consistent drought that has diminished Hydro-Québec’s reservoirs.

For its part, Hydro-Québec said earlier this year that its reservoirs are prepared to weather drought conditions. But Quebec also has decarbonization goals of its own to meet, and demand is rising from data centers and industry — two factors that weren’t so big when the utility agreed to sell off its hydropower more than a decade ago.

More big energy stories

Trump tries to save coal — again

The Trump administration is unleashing $700 million to prop up the coal industry, even as more evidence piles up to show it isn’t worth the expense.

On Thursday, Trump announced that he’d use wartime powers under the Defense Production Act to funnel $425 million to boost 13 coal plants across the U.S. Another $75 million will go toward building an export terminal in Oakland, California, and $185 million is slated for the construction of two new coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia.

The move is just the latest in the administration’s coal-bolstering campaign, which has also seen Trump use an ​“energy emergency” to justify keeping old coal plants from shutting down. But as Canary Media’s Kari Lydersen reported this week, there doesn’t seem to be much of an emergency going on: One Indiana coal plant ordered to stay open has actually been broken since February, and experts say the grid will be just fine without it this summer.

Data center discontent is reaching new heights

More and more Americans are getting fed up with data centers, and that pushback is turning into policy action.

A survey out this week from Heatmap shows that 71% of Americans say they’d somewhat oppose or strongly oppose a data center being built near where they live. Just 42% said the same last fall. The mounting blowback comes alongside a wave of data center project cancellations, according to Heatmap: At least 20 projects were called off in the first quarter of this year.

A wave of cities and states are meanwhile looking to head off data center projects altogether. The New York State Legislature passed a one-year moratorium on new construction on Thursday, though it’s unclear if Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) will sign it into law. Residents of Monterey Park, California, meanwhile took their discontent to a new level, voting this week to become the first U.S. city to outright ban data center development.

Clean energy news to know this week

Offshore wind in the court: Seven states sue the U.S. Interior Department after it reimbursed French energy giant TotalEnergies for abandoning its offshore wind leases. (Canary Media)

Upending electrification: New U.S. Energy Department guidance blocks states from distributing Inflation Reduction Act rebates to people who buy electric heat pumps, stoves, and other appliances to replace gas ones. (Inside Climate News)

Mashing myths: A rumor swirling on social media and pushed by some state lawmakers claims Frito-Lay is refusing to buy potatoes grown on land that has hosted solar panels, but the company says that’s not true, and experts say the arrays don’t put the tubers at risk. (Canary Media)

The grid gets schooled: A Massachusetts school district’s electric buses will serve as grid batteries while they’re parked this summer, bringing in cleaner, cheaper power overnight and saving the district money. (Canary Media)

Making nuclear safer: A ​“meltdown-proof” nuclear fuel has largely failed to take off thanks to its high cost, but the nuclear power renaissance in the U.S. could bring it into the mainstream. (Canary Media)

Risky business: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission formally moves to rescind a Biden-era rule that would’ve required public companies to disclose their climate risks and emissions, after already vowing not to defend the rule against court challenges. (The Hill)