I am very frustrated with the New York Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act (Climate Act) net zero transition because the reality is that there are so many issues coming up with the schedule and ambition of the Climate Act that it is obvious that we need to pause implementation and figure out how best to proceed. This article describes reasons to pause implementation.
I am convinced that implementation of the Climate Act net-zero mandates will do more harm than good because the energy density of wind and solar energy is too low and the resource intermittency too variable to ever support a reliable electric system relying on those resources. I have followed the Climate Act since it was first proposed, submitted comments on the Climate Act implementation plan, and have written over 500 articles about New York’s net-zero transition. The opinions expressed in this article do not reflect the position of any of my previous employers or any other organization I have been associated with, these comments are mine alone.
Call for a Pause
Tom Shepstone wrote an article about a letter from 18 New York Republican Senators calling on Governor Hochul to declare a State of Emergency and “halt Climate Act mandates.” I was meaning to write about this but can now just quote his article. Tom wrote “I applaud the following letter these folks just sent to Kathy Hochul (emphasis added):
The Honorable Kathy Hochul Governor of New York State New York State Capitol Building Albany, NY 12224
Subject: Energy State of Emergency
Dear Governor Hochul,
We write today with a deep sense of urgency to respectfully urge you to issue a State Declaration of Disaster Emergency pursuant to Executive Law §28, in response to escalating reliability concerns surrounding our electric grid and the rapidly rising energy costs burdening New York ratepayers. In accordance with Executive Law §29-A, we further request the suspension of laws enacted under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), Chapter 106 of the Laws of 2019.
The current trajectory toward an all-electric future presents serious and immediate threats to both the reliability of our power grid and the affordability of energy for New Yorkers. Just last month, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) issued multiple Energy Warnings due to a significant decline in operating reserves – underscoring the fragility of the system under current policies.
Legislation stemming from the CLCPA, including mandates for electric vehicles, electric school buses, electric buildings, the repeal of the “100-foot rule,” and a Cap-and-Invest program risks overloading the grid at a time when demand is growing and reliable energy supply is increasingly constrained.
In addition to these reliability concerns, the economic toll of the CLCPA implementation is becoming untenable. A conservative estimate places the total cost of the law’s implementation at
$340 billion. Electricity rates in New York are now 48% higher than the national average and 35% higher than in neighboring Pennsylvania. Alarmingly, nearly 20% of a typical utility bill now consists of government-imposed charges, a figure likely to rise further without intervention.
These realities point to a transition plan that is not only unsustainable but one that risks creating an economic and energy disaster. We believe a pause is essential – one that allows for reassessment, thoughtful adjustment, and a renewed commitment to an energy policy that balances environmental responsibility with reliability and affordability.
We urge your administration to convene a comprehensive review process involving a wide range of stakeholders – industry experts, energy producers, ratepayer advocates, labor and local communities. We further advocate for an “all-of-the-above” energy policy that does not rely solely on wind and solar but also embraces dependable energy sources.
We encourage your administration to continue to push forward with nuclear energy development but let the private sector take the lead. At the same time, we respectfully ask you to reconsider your administration’s stance toward natural gas, a critical and dependable energy source for millions of New Yorkers. Natural gas must remain part of our diverse and resilient energy mix.
This is a pivotal moment for our state’s energy future. We urge you to act now to protect the stability of our energy grid and the economic well-being of all New Yorkers.
Sincerely,
Senator Robert G. Ortt
Senator Tom O’Mara
Senator Mario Mattera
Senator Steve Chan
Senator Jake Ashby
Senator Peter Oberacker
Senator Pam Helming
Senator Mark Walczyk
Senator Dan Stec
Senator Steve Rhoads
Senator Alexis Weik
Senator George Borrello
Senator William Weber
Senator Patrick Gallivan
Senator Dean Murray
Senator Jack M. Martins
Senator Joseph Griffo
Senator Andrew Lanza
Tom went on to note that “Kathy Hochul called it grandstanding, of course. What else is she going to do? Here’s some of what her people had to say, which tells quite a different story:”
The Governor has made it clear she’s taking an all-of-the-above approach to energy that prioritizes affordability, reliability, and sustainability…
Hochul did acknowledge last week that the economic environment has changed since the CLCPA was passed under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“It all goes back a number of years and I’ve had to take a close look and realize that we cannot accomplish what those objectives were back before I became governor in a timeframe that’s gonna not hurt rate payers. So we’re slowing things down. I wanna make sure people know that,” the governor said last Tuesday.
Doreen Harris, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), acknowledged the change in policy, telling Capital Tonight on Wednesday that while the achievement of the climate law is still one potential scenario, the state’s emerging draft energy plan also looks at the challenges the law is facing, including roadblocks at the federal level.
Shepstone concluded:
“All the above” is the first step toward admitting the unreliables are not only not helpful, but also dangerous to the grid. And, then there is “one potential outcome.” I’d say that’s a complete win for our friend Roger Caiazza, who has successfully predicted every bit of this!
For the record, when I wrote to Shepstone and thanked him for the shoutout I noted that my predictions have always bet on physics batting last. Politicians can deny reality for only so long.
Prove It.
Ed Reid makes the point that I have often made that proponents of a renewable plus storage energy grid need a successful demonstration project before we are convinced that it will work. Maybe this will be the face-saving outcome for the Hochul Administration when they bow to the inevitable need to pause implementation. Francis Menton, Rich Ellenbogen, and I have nominated Ithaca separately, Menton explains our perfectly aligned reasoning.
Climate Alarmism and the Media
For physics realists and green energy skeptics like myself it is very frustrating that all media accounts connect any extreme weather event to climate change. This article by Matt Vespa describes Michael Shellenberger’s shared frustration:
This piece is a bit more unconventional than his usual work, but Michael Shellenberger was interested in exploring how climate alarmism has become a lucrative industry in the media. It goes beyond ‘fear sells’ and ‘if it bleeds it leads’ models. It’s panic pornography in its worst form, so bad that one in five children in the United Kingdom suffered nightmares about our impending doom from climate change, manufactured by the media.
He used the recent Texas floods as an example, a tragic event where storms ripped through central Texas, flooding the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, killing at least 100 people. That body count is destined to rise. The river rose 20-plus feet in 90 minutes. The media ran with this cockamamie narrative that it was Donald Trump’s fault due to cuts to NOAA and the National Weather Service, all of which don’t go into effect until next year. Then, there was the ‘NWS was short-staffed,’ which was also debunked—NWS had extra staffers for this system. They also sent alerts; the problem is that no one got them. This area doesn’t have a flood warning system. When it was initially pitched, the public was not keen on the cost.
Shellenberger explained that floods are not new, they’re not caused by climate change, and other nations have adapted to flooding.
30 Items of Evidence that the Rationale is Collapsing
Tom Nelson lists 30 updates on the “climate scam implosion”. Here are my favorites:
- Wonderful straight talk from U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright: “𝑁𝑒𝑡 𝑧𝑒𝑟𝑜 𝑏𝑦 2050 𝑖𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒“; he suggests climate change alarmism is “a quasi-cult religion”.
- Shellenberger/Pielke Jr: “Climate change is going to fade from view like overpopulation did…Lack of protests over Trump’s action on energy shows how little anyone every really cared about global warming“.
- One of the longest running climate cases, Juliana v. United States, just ended in rejection at the Supreme Court.
Pragmatic Environmentalist of New York 