New York State Needs to Just Scrap It's Entire Climate Act, Which Has Failed Miserably, and Start Over with Natural Gas

One of our loyal readers put me onto a New York Post editorial that says exactly what must be said about the Empire State’s Climate Act: the whole thing needs to be permanently scrapped. No halfway measures will do, although there are opportunities to work together with our erstwhile opponents on new policies.

Here’s the Post’s message:

In the latest warning that New York’s Climate Action Plan is a slow-rolling disaster, the pragmatic liberals at the Progressive Policy Institute have called out the absurd green-energy law as an “undeniable” failure.

The PPI report talks politely about the ideals behind the 2019 law, pushed by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and (until recently) fully embraced by Gov. Kathy Hochul, but grimly sums up that its only real impact has been “driving up costs for families” while “constraining reliable supply.”

Indeed, the New York Independent System Operator, the outfit in charge of the state’s grid, recently warned that the grid is at rapidly increasing risk of failure, as the “climate” mandates are making power supplies ever-less reliable, while also stressing electric transmission lines.

PPI details the grim costs of the Cuomo-Hochul agenda:

• New York electricity prices are 44% higher than the national average.

• Residential rates have risen 36% since 2019 — almost three times as faster than in the rest of the country.

• Utilities this year are seeking 20% rate hikes to cover the costs the state’s imposing.

• New York’s wildly impractical plans for new offshore-wind-power generation are only 1% operational; it has reached just 8% of its 2030 goals for energy-storage capacity.

The state simply “ignored the economic and technical realities required” to meet its goals, explained Neel Brown, a report co-author.

Now comes the rapid retreat from the plan, after billions have already gone down the drain.

The New York Energy Board recently recommended pushing back the date to achieve a 40% reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions from 2030 to 2036, though even that’s impractical: The state’s burning more fossil fuels than it was a decade ago.

The board urges looking to build a two- to three-gigawatt nuclear plant, for starters, as its chair calls nuclear “a real bright spot” when it comes to cost and reliability.

Even the Clean Power Alliance is calling out the “climate madness.”

Meanwhile, Hochul last month “paused” the state’s all-electric building mandate, including the first step in her ban on gas stoves.

Staring at next year’s election, the gov confessed that she needs to “review all our options” and perhaps rewrite the climate law to avoid sending consumers’ bills soaring even higher; she’s even making kind noises about nuclear plants.

What she won’t do is admit that the entire green-energy push is completely at odds with making New York life more “affordable.”

Or that it’s her fellow Democrats who’ve repeatedly killed nuke plants in New York, with Andrew Cuomo forcing Indian Point to shut down while Gov. Mario Cuomo stopped the Shoreham plant from ever even opening.

Let alone that the state would be far better off if it abandoned Cuomo’s ban on fracking, and so allowed the completely safe extraction of natural gas that’s proved such a huge boon next door in Pennsylvania.

At least Hochul seems to have realized that lame-brained (and taxpayer-funded) ad campaigns won’t convince the public to suffer in silence.

Yet the truth she doesn’t dare face is that the Empire State needs to scrap this scheme altogether, and embrace energy policy that serves New Yorkers’ needs, not the radical green agenda.

This pretty much says it all, but the Progressive Policy Institute’s full report is worth perusing. It offers the following recommendations:

New York is at a crucial decision point. Faced with mounting evidence that its current strategy is faltering, policymakers must choose between doubling down on inflexible mandates or pursuing a more pragmatic approach that prioritizes both emissions reduction and the economic well-being of its citizens. This requires a return to the principle of least-cost, highest-impact strategies.

1. Shift Focus from Mandates to Outcomes: Policy must pivot from prescribing specific technologies to targeting the metric where New York already leads: emissions per capita. A framework that leverages and enhances this existing strength, rather than forcing costly mandates of fuel mix, can achieve climate goals more affordably and reliably.

2. Modernize and Build Instead of Abolish: A rigorous cost-benefit analysis must determine whether to modernize existing natural gas turbines and boilers or force their closure without adequate replacement. Given the marginal emissions improvements gained by retiring highly efficient gas plants, investing in upgrades could be a more cost-effective way to ensure grid reliability and reduce emissions in the near term. Recent moves to build additional natural gas pipeline capacity is a positive step in this direction.

3. Prioritize Affordability to Sustain Public Support: The state must adopt a path that explicitly prioritizes both emissions reduction and affordability to achieve sustainable climate gains while easing the financial burden on working families. Policies that threaten to dramatically increase utility bills risk undermining public support for the entire climate agenda.

How about that? I had no idea there are reasonable progressives in New York. But, it turns out there are. There is hope. They aren’t changing my mind that the Climate Act should be scrapped altogether, but at least a discussion is possible with these people, and we can agree on natural gas, at least for now, which is good enough for the moment until we see what’s possible and what’s not.

Hat Tip: M.N.

#NewYork #ClimateAct #PPI #Climate #Pipelines #Fracking #NaturalGas