MESSAGE
| DATE | 2023-01-02 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Is your winter cold enough?
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Brace yourself for mountains of pain and misery under Gov. Hochul's
zero-emissions fantasy plan
Post Editorial Board
5–7 minutes
With the start of the new year, New Yorkers are set to have their worlds
turned upside down — and all for a fanciful green-dream plan that comes
with sky-high costs and mountains of other pain yet is almost certain to
fail, and won’t even do much good if successful.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers triggered the nightmare back in
2019 with their delusional Climate Leadership and Community Protection
Act, setting wholly unrealistic “mandatory” milestones to force the
state off fossil-fuel energy and dramatically lower greenhouse gas
emissions.
Gov. Kathy Hochul eagerly picked up the ball, and in December, a panel
stacked with rubber-stampers pushed through a plan they preposterously
claim will enable the state to meet those goals. Hochul’s agencies will
now spit out specific rules and regulations based on the plan.
It’s pure delusion. Consider: By 2030, just seven years from now, the
law requires a 40% cut in emissions over 1990 levels, and 85% by 2050.
Yet as of 2019, emissions had dropped only 7% despite years of effort.
The law also requires a shift to renewable energy for electricity, with
70% online by 2030 and 100% just a decade later. Yet that will mean
ramping up juice for wind- and solar-energy resources several times
over, a herculean (and expensive) undertaking.
(And too bad for communities that don’t want towering windmills or
massive solar-panel farms in their backyards.)
In total, the state will need as much as 124 gigawatts of power by 2040,
per the New York State Independent System Operator, which oversees the
electricity market — though it warns “even that might not be
sufficient.” Which means tripling the state’s current generating power
by adding 83 GWs in new capacity, plus making up for plants that close,
all in just 17 years. For context, the state built just 12.9 GWs over
the past 23 years.
The shift to wind and solar also means other new zero-emissions power
sources will be needed for when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun won’t
shine. Yet get this: There are no such commercial sources available at
the moment. The plan itself admits a projected shortfall in electric
supplies “will require identifying and developing solutions for
dispatchable technologies.” Imagine planning the state’s energy future
on a hope that some new technology will be discovered.
No wonder critics doubt the state can meet even its 2030 goals, let
alone those beyond. Gavin Donohue, who heads the Independent Power
Producers of New York, says it’ll take pure “magic” to make the plan
work. And if it fails, and supplies run short, New York faces crippling
blackouts, which could cost lives and property damage, as Empire Center
energy expert James Hanley notes. That could cascade even to areas
outside the state.
Meanwhile, all New Yorkers will personally have to make big-time
sacrifices — and not just because of the skyrocketing energy bills
they’ll face. As the plan states bluntly: “Every sector [of the economy]
will see significant transformation over the next decade and beyond.”
Prefer gas-powered cars to zero-emission ones? Forget about buying one
in New York after 2035. Indeed, in just seven years, the plan projects 3
million electric vehicles on New York’s roads.
It also wants New Yorkers to switch to heat pumps, with up to 2 million
to be installed by 2030; buildings will have to phase out fossil-fuel
sources for heating. Manufacturers will also need to shift to new
technologies, with steep costs passed to the public.
And that’s just the start: As Hanley put it, the plan dictates “what
types of consumer products New Yorkers will be able to buy . . . how
much workers in the green economy will be paid” — those who work on
renewable-energy projects get a union-rate premium — “how quickly
reliable sources of electricity will shut down and what types of
businesses will be bribed to set up shop in the state.”
Price tag? Some put it at a whopping half trillion bucks or more —
though where the money will come from is anyone’s guess. (Pro tip: Hide
your wallet).
And if, by some miracle, the plan does work, what do New Yorkers get for
all that pain and expense? A reduction in global emissions by the
state’s share: all of 0.4% — though, as Hanley also points out, that
benefit will be enjoyed by the entire world, not just New Yorkers.
In the meantime, nations like China and India will be boosting
emissions, wiping out any gains by New York. Greenies in the state will
feel great about their contributions, though they’ll do virtually
nothing to tame rising temps.
It’s absolute madness — putting New Yorkers through a risky, painful
exercise with virtually nothing to be gained. And here’s the kicker: The
entire justification is based on the myth that humans face catastrophe
unless warming is slowed.
Yes, temperatures are rising. But as Bjorn Lomborg observes, citing UN
figures, unchecked climate change means the average person in 2100 will
be “only” 434% better off, instead 450% without climate change. “That is
not a disaster,” he quips.
Hochul’s push to go through with this folly is certain to spell pain and
misery for the state. The only way out is for New Yorkers to convince
her and lawmakers to ditch the plan and start from scratch.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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