Gov. Kathy Hochul is finally admitting that the “climate” law she’s long supported is toxic to New York’s economy and to “affordability” — but she only wants to delay the death sentence.
We’ve warned for years that the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act is leading the state to disaster — and for no purpose except to honor the delusions of green extremists and further the political ambitions of first Gov. Andrew Cuomo and now Hochul.
Neither one ever admitted the fundamental idiocy; even now, when she says “a climate policy that leaves working families behind is not a sustainable path forward,” Hochul’s only looking to delay the pointless pain.
Specifically, she means to make slightly moving back the goalposts part of this year’s must-pass budget bills, thereby giving legislators an excuse to do the right thing even if it infuriates the greens.
She had hoped to just evade the problem, but now the courts demand she obey the clear language of the 2019 law, including its mandate for the state to cut carbon emissions 40% by 2030.
In reality, New York will never manage that, at least not without adding a ton of nuclear-power plants, let alone the even stricter reductions required in later stages.
But even trying to meet the deadlines will send utility bills and pump prices soaring, slamming families with thousands of dollars in new costs, and burn state cash building wind, solar and battery “farms” in the face of furious local opposition.
Not to mention the soaring risk of blackouts.
Even the lefty Progressive Policy Institute calls the state’s energy program an expensive bust that has only succeeded in “driving up costs for families” and “constraining reliable supply.”
Hochul’s answer: Push back the deadlines until she’s re-elected; if that requires rewriting the law (slightly), then do that.
But the costs won’t be any lower, nor the pain any less pointless, next year or in 2028 or anytime in at least the next decade.
An honest governor would call for the law’s total repeal; end this menace, don’t just punt.