New York’s crusade against gas stoves is being placed on the back burner: Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) recently delayed the implementation of a 2023 ban on running gas in new buildings before it took effect in January.
That hasn’t been Hochul’s only climate backtrack. In November, she agreed to a Trump-backed gas pipeline, marking the Empire State’s first pipeline in at least a decade — and the first since they passed their hallmark climate law in 2019 requiring the state to cut carbon emissions 40 percent by 2030. Hochul also signed an agreement granting permits to a gas-powered crypto mining facility, on the condition the plant nearly halves its pollution by 2030.
When asked in October about the mandate for no gas in new buildings, the governor said she’s “going to look at this with a very realistic approach and do what I can, because my number one focus is affordability.” Hochul’s U-turn is an admission that the anti-energy agenda pushed by far-left environmental groups was always unaffordable.
Climate activists accuse Hochul of being a traitor, but maybe the governor has finally realized that there’s rarely any upside to pursuing unrealistic decarbonization plans. At the very least, it looks like she’s paying attention to voters during a reelection cycle. Polling shows 61 percent of New Yorkers — including 54 percent of Democrats — “somewhat” or “strongly” agreethat keeping energy affordable in the state is more important right now than reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The state’s residential electricity prices have risen 36 percent since New York passed its decarbonization legislation in 2019, according to a Progressive Policy Institute study. That’s almost three times faster than the rest of the country. Still, nearly half of New York’s electricity is supplied by fossil fuels. That study concludes that New York’s energy strategy is driving up costs, constraining reliable supply and jeopardizing the political viability of the state’s climate agenda. Other blue states face similar pain.
It’s no coincidence that most of the states with the highest prices also have the most ambitious decarbonization mandates. Even though the federal government can dish out all kinds of subsidies for renewable energy, the states largely get to regulate how they generate and sell their electricity.
Florida has chosen to base its energy generation on reliability and affordability, instead of ideology. Despite intense energy demands driven by a subtropical climate, Florida’s electricity prices are two percent lower than the national average. The state gets about 75 percent of its energy from natural gas.
Symbolic climate gestures please activists, but they become a political liability when the bills come due.
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