HEDGE FUND FARMING THE SUN

“We are very excited about New York,” said Matthew Rosenblum, CEO of New York City-based Onyx Renewable Partners. He said company-built solar farms should start going online by early 2018, with the power being purchased by “commercial and municipal customers” of National Grid.

Onyx was created in 2014 by the Blackstone Group, a hedge fund headed by billionaire Steve Schwarzman, who leads Trump’s council of business titans on the economy and job creation.

Blackstone has invested about $5 billion so far in energy projects, and recently raised $8.5 billion toward that end, according to the Onyx website. Currently the company has either built or planned renewable energy projects totaling about 1 gigawatt — equivalent to the energy from two fossil-fuel fired plants and enough to power about 750,000 average homes.

In March, town planners in Duanesburg, Schenectady County, approved an Onyx proposal for a 2-megawatt solar farm on farmland off 664 Alexander Road, south of Route 20 several miles west of Duanesburg. Such farms usually take between three and six months to build.

Producing enough power for 300 homes, the array will occupy 12.5 acres out of a 65-acre parcel. Work on clearing the site should start shortly, Rosenblum said.

In February, planners in Amsterdam approved an Onyx proposal for a 2-megawatt solar farm off Route 67 east of the city.

Onyx is also planning similar 2-megawatt solar farms in the Adirondacks — in Northville, near Sacandaga Reservoir, and in Broadalbin in Fulton County, and in Chestertown and Warrensburg, Warren County, according to records filed with the state Public Service Commission. Another farm is planned for Sharon Springs in Schoharie County in the Mohawk Valley.

In 2012, Onyx acquired residential solar installer Vivint Solar for $1.9 billion — eventually selling the company to SunEdison for $2.2 billion three years later. It has also provided financing for transmission and wind projects.

“Investors can no longer ignore climate change,” according to a September 2016 report by the BlackRock hedge fund, whose leader, Larry Fink, also is on the president’s job task force, which was created by Schwarzman.

“Some may question the science behind it, but all are faced with a swelling tide of climate-related regulations and technological disruption. We believe all investors should incorporate climate change awareness into their investment processes. Climate-aware investing is possible without compromising on traditional goals of maximizing investment returns,” according to the report.

That document also questioned long-standing U.S. government subsidies for fossil fuels, a partisan issue in Congress.

“Renewable energy handouts attract a lot of headlines, yet global fossil fuel subsidies are four times as large,” according to the BlackRock report. “Scrapping energy subsidies could reduce global emissions and save governments some $3 trillion a year, more than they collect from corporate taxes.”

The report also examines the issue of a tax assessed on greenhouse gas emissions of carbon dioxide, which an international scientific consensus agrees is driving man-made climate change. BlackRock’s report called a carbon tax the “most cost-effective way” for countries to reach goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Currently, market prices for oil, coal and natural gas “do not yet reflect the social costs of burning fossil fuels. The result is over-consumption. This externality is at the core of the climate challenge,” the BlackRock report said. “Higher carbon pricing would help address this and would be the most cost-effective way for countries to meet their Paris Agreement pledges, many economists believe.”

Trump has criticized the Paris climate agreement, suggesting that the U.S. ought to withdraw from it. On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order that called for producing more oil and coal from federal lands, forced through oil pipelines including Dakota Access and Keystone XL, relaxed fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, and potentially revoked President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants nationwide 30 percent by 2030.