Gov. Kathy Hochul finally admits the state’s “climate” goals are impossible to meet for now, but she offers no reason to trust she won’t continue to pursue them to appease green extremists, at huge cost to regular New Yorkers, if she wins re-election next year. [emphasis, links added]
The climate law demands the state achieve 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040, but it’s still burning as much carbon as ever; its faltering (but hugely expensive) alternative-energy gains aren’t even enough to keep up with expected increases in demand.
The gov is making the smallest possible concession to reality, while dodging as much blame as she can: “We cannot accomplish what those objectives were back in before I became governor in a time frame that’s not going to hurt ratepayers,” she announced this month. “So, we’re slowing things down.”
Mind you, she’s burning ever more of your dollars (via taxes and utility bills) on costly offshore wind projects, still blocking new pipelines, still preventing new-home natural-gas hookups, and making non-electric vehicles more expensive.
She’s simply admitting that it’s not remotely enough, even though it keeps driving New York electricity costs through the roof. (Even roofs with solar panels on top!)
Yet the gov isn’t actually slowing down the “green transition,” just (barely) admitting the fantasy isn’t possible at the moment—and that closing down any more carbon-fueled power plants will mean rolling blackouts and send even more employers fleeing out of state.
Whereas her economic-development (reelection) plans hinge on attracting high-paying but energy-intensive industries (chipmakers; AI server farms, etc.) that can’t run on sunshine and intermittent breezes.
Plus, the battery tech to store power (since wind and solar plants can never be 24/7) isn’t remotely where the “transition” needs it to be, and ever more communities resist building the massive battery plants required.
Yet Hochul’s simply recognizing that “climate action” produces the opposite of “affordability,” a driving issue for voters, and if she wins in 2026, she’ll never again have to care what the voters think.
Don’t forget how she “paused’ congestion pricing last year until Democrats were able to win several House seats in November, then promptly lowered the boom.
There’s no “come to Jesus” moment here; as soon as it’s politically safe, Hochul will be back to sacrificing New York jobs, hopes, and dreams to please greenies.
And the saddest part of all? All the pain she imposes won’t move the needle on climate one bit.
Read more at NY Post
Another Dumb Cluck stuck in a land of Unicorns and Rainbows without any hope of recovery