The Renewable Action Through Project Interconnection and Deployment Act was enacted in New York State in April 2024. This legislation seeks to standardize and expedite environmental review and permitting processes for renewable energy and transmission projects that go through the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES). Improving the process will help New York achieve the emissions reductions targets declared in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). 

The RAPID Act has created a single forum for both major renewable energy facilities and major electric transmission facilities. This forum will have a standardized application review process that should reduce extensive waiting periods during this stage of development. The act also sets timeframes for application approvals. Now ORES has 60 days to determine application completeness for all major renewable energy projects and 120 days for major electric transmission facilities. 

The RAPID Act is expected to be favored by developers since it reduces permit approval time, which previously could have lasted for several months. The RAPID Act also creates significant changes for projects that are between 20-25 megawatts- especially since this law applies to projects that are already in the queue. These medium projects will now have to get approval at the local level when previously they had the option to get permit approval from the local municipality or ORES. The process to get approval from ORES is lengthier and costly, however, it allowed projects to override anti-renewable sentiments within the municipality.  

Overall, standardizing this process will increase the amount of projects that get permit approval which is key for reaching emission reduction targets. However, it is critical to remember the implications of expediting the environmental review process.