Protest of Public Citizen, Inc.

The Commission’s consideration of NYPA’s proposed 75 basis point rate incentive must be conditioned on whether NYPA has applied for or qualifies for any of the six recently enacted federal financial subsidy programs for transmission developers. [...] The Commission has already approved an additional 50 basis points for NYPA’s participation in NYISO, raising its effective ROE to 9.45%.1 On top of that, the Commission granted NYPA the Abandoned Plant Incentive for Propel NY on November 6, 2023.2 An effective ROE of 9.45% combined with the Abandoned Plant Incentive should provide NYPA with more than adequate incentives to build Propel NY without. [...] Since the Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized the Commission to consider the use of incentive rates for transmission projects,3 Congress has appropriated billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies for owners of certain proposed electric transmission projects through two recent statutes: the 2021 Infrastructure Investment 1 Petition, at page 32. [...] • Section 50151 of the IRA (Transmission Facility Financing) appropriates $2 billion for a direct loan program for the development of transmission projects,9 and Section 50152 (Grants to Facilitate the Siting of Interstate Electricity Transmission Lines) spends $760 million aimed at facilitating the siting of 4 www.congress.gov/117/plaws/publ58/PLAW-117publ58.pdf 5 www.congress.gov/bill/117th-cong. [...] Failure to condition approval of NYPA’s requested 75 basis point rate incentive on whether NYPA qualifies for additional financial subsidies through the IIJA and IRA would result in the 75 basis point incentive to be unjust and unreasonable.