Marc Brown, Northeast Executive Director, wrote an article regarding rising energy costs in New York despite a history of past lawmakers’ decisions to aggressively reduce emissions. Legislators in the past have forced the closure of emissions-free nuclear power, banned hydraulic fracturing, and blocked pipelines, creating higher costs and reliability concerns while blaming regulators instead of their own policy failures.
Over the past decade, New York’s lawmakers have voted for legislation that emphasizes aggressive emissions reductions, policy mandates and resource restrictions, supported by a gaggle of acolytes speciously proselytizing that said policies would “reduce costs.”
Now that those claims have proven false and energy costs have risen into politically unpalatable territory, the lawmakers responsible are blaming anyone but themselves for New York’s race with California to create most expensive energy in the U.S.
How bad is it? Recently passed legislation carries with it at least a $340 billion cost increase, or the equivalent to $7,000 a year for every New Yorker for the next 25 years.
Say that out loud: a $7,000 tax on every man, woman and child in New York State for the next 25 years.
Look at any utility bill in New York and take a wild guess at how much of the total is a hidden tax to pay for policies instituted by legislators. You’d be forgiven for not knowing because it’s not made clear. After all, no one wants to leave their fingerprints on a tax increase. Maybe it’s time for Gov. Kathy Hochul to follow the lead of her Massachusetts counterpart who is calling for a line-by-line review of energy bills, which should be clear and easy for the general public to digest.
Did the proponents of these policies really believe that re-engineering a functioning energy system while limiting existing, affordable energy options was going to be cheaper? Did they think that by forcing the premature closure of the 2,000 megawatts of emissions-free nuclear power at Indian Point, which was capable of powering 25% of New York City, it was going to actually lower costs? Of course they didn’t. They just weren’t banking on the level of outrage over rising costs.
Now, the elected class has taken to deploying countermeasures that try to level the blame for rising costs on energy companies and regulators, both of whom serve under the policies enshrined by those very same legislators.
This is rock-throwing from the front porch of your glass house, in a neighborhood of glass houses you built.
Electoral risks such as high prices create desperation, which in turn breeds misguided plans that do not solve or even tackle the underlying problem. Currently, some New York legislators are proposing the creation of a new regulatory agency to replace the current Public Service Commission, or PSC. A new regulatory set-up won’t change a thing except spend more tax dollars to replace a functioning entity — sound familiar yet?
Your electric and gas rates are a combination of market forces and public policy charges — not PSC mismanagement. If you are unhappy with your electric bills, blame the officials who shut down Indian Point and lied when they told you that investing billions in alternative energy programs was going to save you money.
Wondering why gas rates are so high despite New York sitting on the doorsteps of the producing parts of the Marcellus and Utica natural gas fields, and having natural gas under its soil? Blame the legislators and bureaucrats that banned hydraulic fracturing and fought projects like the Constitution Pipeline that could have reduced those costs.
Criticizing rate increases for critical infrastructure to support a more reliable energy system when legislative mandates are materially adding non-essential costs to New Yorkers’ bills is policy malpractice. This is akin to complaining about having to replace your leaky roof while ignoring the cost of the new pool you just installed.
You need a roof, not the pool. New Yorkers need enough gas to heat homes in winter, a fact PSC chairman Rory Christian flagged in a decision involving a potential pipeline expansion “because widespread gas outages are a real possibility today given the narrow margin between available gas supply and demand.”
The predictable response from certain elected officials and others decrying the pipeline arrived quickly, missing a critical point Christian made: “The safety and reliability of the natural gas system that millions of New Yorkers rely on for heating their homes during cold winter weather is something that everyone should agree is non-negotiable.”
Apparently, keeping New Yorkers warm is a negotiable point for some, lest they accept responsibility for the outcomes of the policies they voted for, for the $340 billion they stuffed into New Yorkers’ utility bills and for the increasingly unreliable energy system they have wrought.
Also featured on: Poughkeepsie Journal, Ithaca Journal, Times Herald-Record, Daily Messenger