Some Democrats in the Albany may be starting to see the insanity of New York’s “climate action” laws — but will enough agree to even delay the suicide pact?
Gov. Kathy Hochul says she wants to “review all our options,” including making changes to the state’s disastrous 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act — which set budget-busting, pie-in-the-sky mandates to slash greenhouse-gas emissions.
Plus, some Assembly Democrats who once denied Hochul was banning gas stoves now admit that’s just what she’s doing — and demand she delay the ban.
Yet it’ll be tough to convince the progressives who dominate the Legislature to roll back the law, since global-warming hysteria remains the rule on the left, especially among the donor class and other college-educated whites.
Watch New Jersey, where voter fury over soaring electric costs may send Jack Ciattarelli to the governor’s mansion; even a close race there will open eyes in Albany.
Rising utility bills and the threat of blackouts are already becoming major issues in New York, and Hochul plans to make “affordability” the centerpiece of her 2026 reelection campaign.
“My job is to ensure we have enough power to keep the lights on, keep rates affordable and attract major economic development projects,” the gov griped after a judge last month ordered her Department of Environmental Conservation to issue rules to ensure the state meets the 2019 law’s emissions goals.
Meaning: She wants to override (or ignore: see below) the clear letter of the law, even if she doesn’t dare go so far as to call out these statutes’ stupidity.
“We plan to review all our options, including working with the Legislature to modify the CLCPA,” in order “to protect New Yorkers from higher costs.”
Under the law, New York must cut CO2 output by 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050.
On the other hand, the law ordered that rules to achieve those goals be enacted by Jan. 1, 2024 — yet here we are nearly two years later, and they have yet to materialize.
(Yep: Hochul’s ignoring the law!)
Meanwhile, Assemblyman William Conrad (D-W.NY) reports the state’s no-gas mandate, which kicks in at the end of this year, has already hiked construction costs, threatening affordable-housing projects and raising the specter of winter blackouts.
Worse, the state Climate Action Plan mandates closing natural-gas power plants and replacing them with pricier, less reliable solar and offshore-wind installations (which are often failing to get off the ground).
Indeed: The New York Independent System Operator (which runs the electric grid) and even the New York Affordable Clean Power Alliance, a solar-industry group, warn that shifting to solar and wind poses dire threats to reliable power, particularly in the Hudson Valley, Long Island and the Big Apple.
How will Hochul prevent blackouts and keep costs down for New Yorkers when the power supply runs short? Especially, as the NYSIO points out, with growing electric demands from cryptocurrency, data mining and all the “green” mandates to shift to electric heat, cooking and cars?
The idea that New York can even build enough solar- and wind-power generation in time to meet those mandates was always fantasy, a charade to please climate activists — yet it’s what the law says the state must do.
As the legal deadlines get closer (or pass without the state doing what the law says it should), the truth grows ever more obvious: It’s not just unrealistic to make “net-zero carbon emissions” a top priority, it’s also expensive, risky and wrongheaded.
How many court orders can the governor defy?
Can she get the Legislature to change the laws and get the courts off her back?
Alas, pols like Hochul may only care about timing: The 2026 gas mandates kick in just as their reelection campaigns begin.
“Don’t bring things to a grinding halt,” suggests Assemblyman John McDonald (D-Rensselaer), just “slow down a little bit and put a temporary pause in there.”
Translation: Wait until after we’re safely reelected before socking New Yorkers with higher bills and blackouts.
Don’t forget how Hochul delayed congestion pricing until after the 2024 elections.
Yet reality won’t change after the election.
Albany should ditch the mandates completely and focus on economic growth.
Yet Hochul will only seek delays, and the progs may well not go along even that far; forget about doing what New York really needs, like opening the state to fracking.
As long as Democrats dominate, it’s hard to see New York having reliable electric power much longer, and just forget about it being affordable.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
