… And Coming Your Way?

In the Manhattan Contrarian, Fracis Menton discusses the situation as NYC approaches the Green Energy Crisis. In a three-page memo from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to the Governor’s office, it reveals that implementation of what New York calls its “cap and invest” program — actually, an artificial scarcity program intentionally designed to drive prices up and impoverish the people that would cost every New York household thousands of dollars in increased energy costs.

The only proper response to Gov. Hochul’s piece, according to MC, is scorn and derision, and no matter how much, it still won’t be enough. The Governor and her staff approach the subject of energy policy as morons and treat voters like morons.

They have never done any credible assessment of either feasibility or cost of the Climate Act mandates. Now that the mandates are approaching, it is obvious that they cannot be achieved at any remotely reasonable cost; but our leaders have no plan forward. Their only idea is to pretend that the Climate Act plan is real when it is not, and that it is moving forward when it is not, and then postpone the hard deadlines until after the current Governor is gone.

Mr. Menton gives readers a few choice quotes, with thoughtful translations:

Gov. Hochul: All New Yorkers should be immensely proud that their home state is a national leader for clean energy and climate action. As Governor, I take that role very seriously, knowing it is our mission to leave our world better than we inherited it… Since I have been Governor, more than $88.7 billion has been invested in clean energy through programs that have made us an example for the rest of the nation.

MC Translation: We have wasted $88.7 billion of taxpayer dollars on wind and solar projects and related infrastructure that are completely useless. (Hochul doesn’t break down how much of the $88.7 billion is New York taxpayer money versus federal.) For a fraction of that money, we could have re-powered our natural gas power plants into more efficient combined-cycle plants, but we didn’t do that because the enviro zealots were against it, and we do whatever they say without ever considering whether it makes sense.

Gov. Hochul: President Trump has denied the science, calling climate change a hoax. Just this week, he again vowed to block all new offshore wind projects and is actively attempting to dismantle those already under construction. At the same time, the federal government is also canceling grants and tax credits for solar and wind, electric vehicles, heat pumps, and other pollution-reduction initiatives while rolling back key scientific findings and regulations that would have helped the nation move toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Without a federal partner, there is only so much states can do on their own. . . . The fact is, we will be dealing with a White House outright hostile toward renewable energy for at least another three years, making it impossible for us to meet our targets without imposing higher costs on homeowners, renters, and businesses.

MC Translation: We claimed to be the “climate leader,” but in fact we never had any intention of spending much, if any of our own money on this, and we were planning to stick almost all the exorbitant cost to the federal taxpayers. Now that President Trump has nixed that scam, we realize that this is completely unaffordable. So we will call President Trump a bunch of nasty names, even though we must admit that he is completely right on this issue.

[A]dvocates . . . took the extreme step of suing the state to force it to issue regulations to meet the Climate Act’s 2030 emission reductions targets. A judge agreed and ruled that the state must swiftly issue regulations to achieve what now would be costly and unattainable targets, unless the law is changed. . . . We need more time, and so I am proposing we amend the law to require regulations to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions to be issued at the end of 2030.

MC Translation: I’m running for another term, which will likely be my last. The final day of that term is 31 December 2030. So let’s make that the mandated date for Climate Act compliance regulations to take effect. I will do nothing, and the next guy will take office on 1 January 2031 and find him or herself immediately in default and under court injunction to do something. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

A World of Make Believe

Meanwhile, asks the MC, what about “we need more time?” For what?

Nothing significant about this is going to be any different four years from now. Electricity generation from wind and sun will still be intermittent and in need of full backup to be usable on the grid. Cost of energy storage may fall a little, but nothing near the factor of a hundred or more that would be needed for a wind/solar/ storage grid to be an economically viable replacement for a grid powered by dispatchable generators. The magical “dispatchable emissions-free resources” talked about by New York energy bureaucrats will be no closer to existence than they are today.

Nothing About Green Energy Transition Is Real…

… except for the ongoing costs getting stuck to the taxpayers and ratepayers. Gov. Hochul and her bureaucratic posse — have no idea what they are doing, so they are closing their eyes and hoping the whole thing goes away.

If the Climate Act deadlines were a stand-alone piece of legislation, it would likely need to go through public hearings at the Capitol, and it would attract substantial attention. So watch for this to treated as part of the “budget” negotiations and emerge as one piece in a massive omnibus budget bill with little or no further mention.

Meanwhile, continues Mr. Menton, “tens of billions of taxpayer and ratepayer dollars continue to be wasted on useless wind turbines and solar panels and grid-scale batteries and additional transmission and delivery infrastructure. I guess we can be thankful that it’s only tens of billions, versus the hundreds of billions that would have been wasted if the federal taxpayers remained on the hook.”