Colin Kinniburgh is a reporter at New York Focus, covering the state’s climate and environmental politics. He has worked in media for more than a decade, across print, television, audio, and online news, and participated in fellowship programs at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism, the Metcalf Institute, and the NYU Stern School of Business. His reporting has appeared in outlets including France 24, Grist, Dissent, and The Nation.
As climate disasters threaten a home insurance crisis, a new state bill aims at the problem’s root.
State lawmakers are set to introduce a sweeping proposal for a public takeover of Central Hudson, the region’s scandal-plagued gas and electric utility.
The Assembly rejected legislation that would have sped up New York’s transition away from gas.
The Assembly and Senate want to beef up labor standards and farmland protections for clean energy projects. Developers say that would slow down the energy transition.
State investigators accused the gas utility of “sloppiness” in managing customer funds, but took a light touch in enforcement.
The state wants to phase out fossil fuels. Localities have given over a billion dollars in tax breaks to help keep them around.
The governor and the Senate have aligned on large swathes of the NY HEAT Act. The Assembly might be ready to move on it, too.
A major wind and solar developer is defecting from industry ranks, arguing the state shouldn’t bail out struggling projects.
How a Hamptons mine, in defiance of New York’s top court, keeps trucking out precious piles of sand.
Will putting a price on trash keep the state’s garbage from overflowing?
New York’s labyrinthine “rate case” process, explained.
They’re on their way, officials promise. But they’re years late.
The legislation follows New York Focus reporting that showed a major gas utility may have been siphoning off customers’ bills to fund an anti-electrification campaign.
In New York’s third-largest city, locals are sick of skyrocketing bills and dirty fuel sources. They’re fighting against long odds for the public to own the grid.
Massena residents fought the local utility to bring their electric grid under public control. Forty years later, they say it’s still paying off.
Air-polluting “peaker” plants were a top priority for closure in New York’s green transition. But the state isn’t building clean energy fast enough to replace them on time.
Trade groups are spending big to fight legislation that would restrict single-use packaging and bar their preferred “chemical recycling” technologies.
Biofuels, hydrogen, carbon capture, and nuclear: These are some of the technologies that will be on the table as New York weighs how to clean up its grid over the next 17 years.
National Fuel customers paid for a website directing New Yorkers to oppose electrification mandates, documents show.
New York law requires utilities to build out gas infrastructure at customers’ expense. The Senate wants to close the spigot.