Hochul plans to build NY's energy transmission lines faster. Will upstate towns balk?

First, there was ORES, now comes RAPID.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has plans to speed up the permitting of transmission lines — the overhead highway of high-voltage cables that moves energy along the grid — by creating a department to streamline approvals.

It will be created through the Renewable Action Through Project Interconnection and Deployment (RAPID) Act and it will be housed within the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES).

ORES was created four years ago to remedy a local permitting process that saw just a handful of wind and solar projects get the go-ahead.

With ORES, 15 clean energy projects have received permits over the past two years, according to the state.

It can take up to two years for a transmission project to score a permit, the state says.

The problem? New York committed to ambitious renewable energy goals, but energy generated in upstate New York regions isn't making it to where it is needed most, in energy-hungry New York City and its suburbs in the lower Hudson Valley.

New transmission lines will make that connection.

“As New York continues to strive to build the clean energy infrastructure of the future, our pace of progress is jeopardized by the lack of a mechanism to fast-track transmission projects and grid interconnection decisions,” according to the State of the State policy book Hochul released Tuesday.

ORES: NY created an agency to OK wind and solar projects quickly. Upstate towns aren't happy

Upstate opposition to NY's approach to energy goals

Some upstate towns opposed to wind and solar projects were not happy with the decision to create ORES. They argued it was designed to undercut their concerns that renewable projects would intrude on farmland.

So they may not be happy about RAPID.

But state officials say the RAPID Act will make sure that ORES is “responsive to community feedback and environmental considerations.”

A lot is on the line.

Transmission: NY isn't building power transmission lines fast enough, leaving energy goals in jeopardy

New York's renewable energy goals will target 70% renewable power by 2030 and 100% zero emissions by 2040.

But while upstate New York has plenty of clean energy, the downstate region does not.

Transmission will be critical to moving upstate wind and solar power from west to east and then south to the lower Hudson Valley and New York City.

Regions in the Southern Tier, Western New York and the North Country have been declared “renewable generation pockets” because there’s not enough transmission around to deliver wind and solar power onto the grid.

A study by the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) notes that on the average day, more than 60% of available renewable energy won’t even make it onto the grid.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NYS State of State: How NY could speed up transmission line buildout