Incorporating Out-of-State Fuel Cycle Emissions in New York State’s GHG Inventory

New York State’s 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act requires accounting for greenhouse gas emissions associated with both the generation of electricity imported into the state and the extraction and transmission of fossil fuels imported into the state. This requirement necessitates using upstream fuel cycle factor data—a requirement unique for GHG inventories.

ERG coupled its expertise in GHG inventories and life cycle assessment to conduct a GHG inventory for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. For the draft inventory, ERG developed customized fuel cycle results for natural gas, petroleum, and coal. The results identify the locations for fuel extraction, processing, and distribution relevant to New York State.

To generate the results, we used both national and region-specific, bottom-up models (including many we support ourselves, such as Argonne’s GREET model and models for the National Energy Technology Laboratory). We conducted additional sensitivity analyses using top-down GHG emission satellite data across the fuel cycle. The ERG team presented the draft findings of the fuel cycle analysis at the New York Department of Environmental Conservation’s public hearing on oil and gas emissions accounting. ERG documented the study methods and findings in the 2020 New York State energy sector GHG emissions inventory report.