Are you ready?

New York State has long led the way on climate change regulation. From the early days of the Governor's Greenhouse Gas Task Force through the development of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, to the inclusion of important climate change considerations in the new State Energy Plan, New York has led the way. You may think that if you're not in the business of energy generation, it doesn't affect you. But controlling fossil fuel emissions from power plants is only the beginning. New York State already requires that projects examine energy use and greenhouse gas emissions as part of the SEQR process -- not only direct emissions, but also indirect emissions caused by your project may need to be evaluated. Depending on your project, you may need to be evaluating your direct energy use as well as the indirect effects of your project. Of course, what triggers significance is undefined -- like a lot of things in SEQR, the lead agency will know it when it sees it. Project sponsors heading into the SEQR process would be well-advised to look at those potential impacts, and be prepared to reduce or mitigate them, early in the process in order to avoid surprises.