In the latest warning that New York\u2019s 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 \u201cundeniable\u201d failure.<\/p>\n
The PPI report<\/a> 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 \u201cdriving up costs for families\u201d while \u201cconstraining reliable supply.\u201d <\/p>\n Indeed, the New York Independent System Operator, the outfit in charge of the state\u2019s grid, recently warned<\/a> that the grid is at rapidly increasing risk of failure, as the \u201cclimate\u201d mandates are making power supplies ever-less reliable, while also stressing electric transmission lines.<\/p>\n PPI details the grim costs of the Cuomo-Hochul agenda:<\/p>\n The state simply \u201cignored the economic and technical realities required\u201d to meet its goals, explained Neel Brown, a report co-author.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now comes the rapid retreat from the plan, after billions have already gone down the drain.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s impractical: The state\u2019s burning more fossil fuels than it was a decade ago.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n The board urges looking to build a two- to three-gigawatt nuclear plant, for starters, as its chair calls nuclear \u201ca real bright spot\u201d when it comes to cost and reliability.<\/p>\n Even the Clean Power Alliance is calling out<\/a> the \u201cclimate madness.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Hochul last month \u201cpaused\u201d<\/a> the state\u2019s all-electric building mandate, including the first step in her ban on gas stoves.\u00a0<\/p>\n Staring at next year\u2019s election, the gov confessed that she needs to \u201creview all our options\u201d and perhaps rewrite the climate law to avoid sending consumers\u2019 bills soaring even higher; she\u2019s even making kind noises <\/a>about nuclear plants.<\/p>\n What she won\u2019t do is admit that the entire green-energy push is completely at odds<\/a> with making New York life more \u201caffordable.\u201d<\/p>\n Or that it\u2019s her fellow Democrats who\u2019ve 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. <\/p>\n Let alone that the state would be far better off if it abandoned Cuomo\u2019s ban on fracking<\/a>, and so allowed the completely safe extraction of natural gas that\u2019s proved such a huge boon next door in Pennsylvania<\/a>.<\/p>\n At least Hochul seems to have realized that lame-brained (and taxpayer-funded) ad campaigns<\/a> won\u2019t convince the public to suffer in silence. <\/p>\n\n
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