FROM: Ostroff Associates

DATE: August 5, 2021

RE: Just Transition Working Group

Co-Chairs
• Roberta Reardon, Co-Chair, Commissioner, New York State Department of Labor
• Doreen M. Harris, Co-Chair, Acting President and CEO, New York State Energy Research and
Development Authority

Members
• RuthAnne Visnauskas, Commissioner, Homes and Community Renewal
• John B. Rhodes, Chair, New York State Public Service Commission
• Vincent Albanese, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, LIUNA
• Omar Freilla, Founder and Coordinator, Green Worker Cooperatives
• Henry A. Garrido, Executive Director, DC 37
• Patrick Jackson, Director of Global Energy Management, Corning, Inc.
• Gary LaBarbera, President, Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York
• Michael Padgett, Vice President of Energy, Alcoa
• Brian Raley, Principal Staff Engineer, Global Foundries
• James Shillitto, President, Utilities Workers Union of America Local 1-2
• Maritza Silva-Farrell, Executive Director, ALIGN
• Theodore J. Skerpon, President, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 97
and Chair, Utility Labor Council of New York
• Lara Skinner, Executive Director, The Worker Institute, Cornell University
• Candis Tolliver, Political Director, 32BJ SEIU
• Randy Wolken, President and Chief Executive Officer, Manufacturers Association of Central
New York and Manufacturers Alliance

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Patrick Jackson – Corning has finalized six long-term solar projects in New York with help from NYSERDA
and the NY-Sun program. Corning released its first corporate sustainability report in June and completed
its submission to the carbon disclosure project for climate change and water security in July.

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Sarah Crowell (NYSDOS) – The Brownfield Opportunity Area Program works with communities that face
negative impacts of vacant industrial lands and environmentally degraded properties. BOA has helped
communities revitalize neighborhoods and attract new investments on their terms. As the group looks
at repurposing power plants and providing jobs and quality of life to communities that are most
vulnerable, BOA can offer guidance or be a part of the solution. The EPA defines brownfield sites as ‘real
property, the expansion or redevelopment of which may be complicated by the presence of a hazardous

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pollutant, contaminant or potential contaminant’. The New York State definition is narrower but BOA
uses the EPA definition. Many brownfield sites across New York State offer opportunities for
redevelopment. After the 2003 Superfund Law, advocates realized at that time communities need to
have a role in determining the future uses of these sites. The BOA program was inspired by early
brownfield discussions and Environmental Justice groups advocating for community involvement.
Overall, it is a community-wide approach to revitalization. BOA provides communities and stakeholders
the resources that they need to engage in planning and development for the re-use of brownfields.
Furthermore, these communities tend to be ones that have historically faced a lack of investment,
systemic racism and higher poverty levels.

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Doreen Harris – With regard to the federal investments that will be coming to New York, how does that
influence the BOA program?
• Crowell – BOA is designed to help those types of investments in a positive way. It’s critical that
funding is invested in a way that maximizes private investment while providing communities the
benefits that they want and need. It’s not ideal when investments are made and the benefits do
not correlate with the needs and wants of local communities.

Paul Beyer – BOA is the purest form of smart growth seeing that it integrates equity, economy,
environment and energy. It empowers communities while helping reach economic and climate goals.

James Shillitto – Will BOA be provided to communities as an example of what is possible for them after
the closure of fossil fuel plants?
• Crowell – Yes. The best way to start this process is for communities to learn from other
communities to see the potential for their own areas.

Randy Wolken – What is the best way for communities to engage in this process? Many of these projects
are developed by developers. It is a complicated and challenging process to access brownfields. It’s
noticeable that there is a lack of industrial sites for manufacturers. They are trying to grow and there is a
lot of infrastructure around them and they tend to have very green buildings these days. What is the
best way for communities to link-up with developers to get the best use out of these sites?
• Crowell – The state would encourage communities to apply for a BOA grant so that they can be
given the resources they need to develop these partnerships and plans. The state can

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 additionally set up conferences and workshops where developers can speak with communities.
Communities include the residents, property owners and local business owners. This provides an
opportunity for mutual needs to be identified and discussed. There is no magic bullet but
providing information is critical.

Wolken – Do you think IDAs would be good partners? They tend to be the best public partner with
private industry entities looking for development.
• Crowell – Yes. They are often great partners in BOAs, especially where there is more industrial
use.

Tom Kaczmarek (Department of Public Service) – Is there an opportunity to push forward a list of best
practices for communities in order to shorten the time frame?
• Crowell – The State has been working on a guidebook but it is something that is not currently
available. Making information easily accessible to communities is very important.

Harris – The NYSERDA toolkit could be a resource for this type of activity.

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Santos Rodriguez – With regard to prevailing wage and unionized rates, are they being included within
the job study scope or are they being taken out?

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 • Josh Williams – As of now, the study is looking at the best estimate of what the baseline
numbers are as of 2019 with caveat dials that show what would happen if unionization rates or
prevailing wage requirements increased. Therefore, those two issues are external factors that
can be tested to show what would happen if their use would be increased or decreased. In
certain industries it would have a big impact versus other industries.

Rodriguez – What do you mean by big impact? In terms of what?

• Williams – For example, if the state instituted a policy that increased requirements for union
utilization. The study could use that as a dial to see what impact that would have on
employment.

Rodriguez – It is just as important to see the outcomes on people as a whole. If employment cost is
measured when looking at unionization or prevailing wage there additionally should be a measurement
of the cost of utilizing these when it comes to overall quality of life.
• Williams – The study is trying to demonstrate the potential options for the panel members to
understand and then make educated decisions.

Henry Garrido – Does the analysis examine the role of public sector jobs? It seems like this is solely the
private sector?
• Williams – At this point the study includes both the public and private sector. However, the
information is not yet constructed in a manner where the two sectors can be separated.

Garrido – Can you clarify the issue of unionization rates? It is concerning that this could exacerbate
hurting people of color in industries that have traditionally used cheap labor.
• Williams – The analysis will present where unionization, prevailing wage and labor standards are
in terms of the 2019 baseline data. Moving forward there will be data to show where these
numbers go as secondary employment outputs. The potential dials such as manufacturing and
labor requirements have not been finalized yet. There are numerous potential dials that could
be included.

Wolken – Will the analysis look at all industries? For Upstate, manufacturing, agriculture and technology
are really high-pay and high-growth jobs. Will the analysis look at the impacts that policies will have on
those sectors universally as well as specifically in relation to climate change and clean energy?
• Williams – The focus is looking at how the sectors are impacted through the different transition
scenarios. It is not going to be everything within the economy. However, there is technology and
manufacturing but, agriculture will be looked at in a different NYSERDA study. For the
technology and the manufacturing components, these will be incorporated in the
transportation, building and electricity scenario. We will show those industry and occupational
impacts but through the lens of those different sectors.

Wolken – Would the study miss the potential negative impacts of the policy decisions? Shouldn’t the
panel at least know what they are? If the study only looks through the lens of growth like investments in
solar and so forth the manufacturing jobs for that in New York are low. Most of it comes from Europe or
Asia. The study needs to capture the full slate of policy impacts so that policy decisions can be made
accurately about things like procurement or a made in the USA policy. The challenge will be to not just

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show one side of the equation. The complete picture needs to be shown so that the panel can adjust its
approaches while reaching the goal.
• Williams – This is a great question. The study is modeling both positive and negative
employment impacts. For example, solar will increase but natural gas will likely decrease. The
sub-sectors will identify this. In transportation, it is challenging how gas and fueling stations will
be impacted.

Wolken – In general, overall agriculture will be impacted and overall manufacturing will be impacted. It
will not just be specific to those sectors. This is challenging because New York State will be ahead of the
curve and other states will be farther behind. Unless the federal government steps in, the country will
be behind internationally. How can the modeling capture this to make the best decisions?
• Williams – The direct impacts will show what happens within a specific sector but the indirect
impacts will show a broader level of employment impacts. There will be rollover effects of things
going on outside of specific sectors.

Lara Skinner – This discussion ties in to ideas that are happening in terms of BOEM and potentially using
the Defense Production Act for off-shore wind. BOEM could require a certain percentage of parts to be
produced in the U.S. or in-state. In that industry it could be helpful to do some modeling that looked at if
it was a 10 or 25% requirement to have parts produced in-state or in the U.S. Many workforce surveys
have been relying on employer data rather than outreach to workers themselves. What is the plan to do
direct outreach to workers? There is a lot of evidence that shows much of the work that is happening,
especially in solar and energy efficiency, is being done by subcontractors who are not included in
surveys like this. If direct outreach is not done, then there could be a misrepresentation of wages paid,
work conditions and training.
• Williams – 2019 is the baseline for employment levels and employment profiles, this does not
include wages. It includes where people are located across the state and different supply chains.
The energy employment report does include the majority of work being done at the
subcontractor level. Moving forward, the workforce analysis needs to look at different
scenarios. There are supplementary surveys that do get worker feedback but, it could always be
better.

Shillitto – In the study moving forward, where will operations and maintainance of renewables be
captured?
• Williams – The study split the expectation of expenditures into three categories. Planning
expenses, capital expenses and operational expenses and all are included in the job impacts.

Vincent Albanese – On the projections, there was a residential and a utility slide. The slide said in 2025
there would be 1.4GW of utility scale generation. The numbers right now show that this project is much
lower than what is currently moving through Article 10. However, we are seeing that there is a bell
curve and not an infinite projection like these numbers show. How does the study get to these
numbers?
• Williams – The data that was being used is old data. Next week there will be new data that
includes updates to where utility scale solar projects are as well as residential scale.

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