Stop New York’s climate madness before it drives electric rates into orbit

Buried by the baby formula crisis , the horror in Buffalo, soaring prices at the pump and other grim news has been the most ominous single development for New York’s future: Word from the former head of the Public Service Commission, John Howard, that the state’s carbon-free-energy law will cost New Yorkers “hundreds of billions” in higher energy bills . And his numbers come right from documents released by the state Climate Action Council, which is tasked with figuring out how to make the plan work. That is beyond question more than New Yorkers can pay: All this madness will do is fuel the exodus out of the Empire State before the plan finally becomes so obviously insane that it gets abandoned. Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo pushed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act into law in 2019, as he polished his credentials for a potential future presidential run. Advocates for the Climate Action Plan admit the capital investments needed will surpass $300 billion, but Cuomo & Co. simply ignored the costs, since they expected to be long out of office before reality hit home. Instead, Albany can pretend that Con Ed and other utilities will pay the bills, not taxpayers. Except that utilities only get their income from ratepayers, who are the taxpayers. The transition requires not just vast new wind-and solar farms, but new transmission lines and enormous investments in batteries and other power storage, because “green” energy is utterly weather-dependent. Shorn of subsidies, wind and solar are also far more expensive, so even if the infrastructure were free , utilities bills would still spike. Honesty about all this would’ve sunk the plan, so Cuomo hid the truth, and the Legislature went along. Heck, Gov. Kathy Hochul is still pushing this insanity in a bid to bolster her immediate political future. So much for her vows to deliver the “transparency” that Cuomo didn’t. Kudos to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie for at least nixing Hochul’s push to immediately ban new-building natural-gas hookups statewide, another favorite of the climate warriors even though gas is the lowest-carbon fossil fuel. Heastie, like anyone who seriously looks at the numbers (including all the utility execs gamely trying to comply with the plan) surely knows the law’s mandated transition away from all fossil fuels by 2050 simply isn’t achievable, not just with current technology but any now on the horizon. We guess the speaker just figures calling out left-wing nonsense isn’t his job. But Howard, a former Cuomo appointee and Assembly staffer, now has the freedom to sound the alarm. “The Legislature, either through its silence or total lack of actions, has given this commission nearly the exclusive responsibility to reach into New Yorkers’ pockets to pay for the CLCPA mandates,” he thundered at a public PSC session. That is, Con Ed, National Grid and so on will take the early steps, then ask their regulators for rate increases to fund them, which the unelected PSC will grant — until the public finally wakes up to demand relief. Not that Howard’s the only Democrat crying foul. Transport Workers Union Local 101 President Constance Bradley has also warned that Hochul’s expanded zero-emissions plan would “wipe out thousands of good union jobs.” And TWU International President John Samuelsen gave the big picture: Democrats need to “decide whether they’re for the working people or the elites.” Indeed, since New York gets so much of its tax income from the rich, sticking the cost in utility bills instead is another burden on the poor and working class. Who also can’t invest in home generators to keep the lights on when the blackouts hit: Empire Center experts want the current plan will within a few years leave the state up to 10% short of being able to meet peak demand. The sooner the state abandons this madness, the better. Consider it one more reason to vote out every New York Democrat you can come November.