Posted on 03/09/2026 5:10:48 AM PDT by MtnClimber
For a few years now, it has been blindingly obvious that New York had over-promised and over-committed on impossible “climate” goals that could not be achieved. In various posts I have referred to this as an approaching “cliff,” or perhaps as the “green energy wall.” It has been entertaining to ponder what the final disaster might look like.
This week has had a lot of developments. Most interesting is the growing split among the governing Democrats between, on the one hand, those who see disaster coming and are looking for some kind of graceful exit and, on the other hand, those pushing full speed ahead to go over the cliff. It may already be too late for New York to have any graceful exit from its self-inflicted predicament. Nevertheless, my official position is that I am advocating for New York to take the most graceful possible exit while it still can. But I have to admit that secretly I am hoping for the most aggressive advocates to get their way and take New York over the cliff. Hey, I’ll wait out the blackouts somewhere else, and maybe a critical mass of the voters will finally wake up.
So let me just give you some straight reporting on the latest developments.
As background, we are in the thick of budget season in New York State, with a final budget due to be enacted by April 1. The Governor is in the midst of negotiations with the two houses of the State Legislature. In recent years it has become common for the most important legislation in the year to get wrapped somehow into the budget; and the legislative situation with respect to “climate” mandates is undoubtedly important. So while it might at first seem that climate and energy legislation is extraneous to the budget, it is now inherently a part of the budget process.
Looming out there we have the so-called Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) of 2019. The CLCPA sets incrementally tightening statutory mandates for achieving “net zero” by 2050. First up is a mandate for 70% of electricity from “renewables” by 2030. Also mandated is what they call the “cap and invest” program, under which large emitters must buy allowances if they wish to continue emitting, and the allowances become scarcer and more expensive with passing years. The CLCPA had a deadline of January 1, 2024 for the State to issue regulations to implement the cap and invest program, but the State blew off the deadline. Environmental activists sued to force the issuance of the regulations, and a court granted an injunction. But the State has appealed, and has taken advantage of the right to an automatic stay. So for now the deadline for these regulations is on hold. However, the statute is clear that the regulations must be issued, and a ruling from the appeals court will come in a few months. In other words, it is unlikely that this game can go on much longer.
Into this mix on February 26 there dropped a three-page memo from Doreen Harris to the State’s Operations Director, Jackie Bray, with the subject line “Likely Costs of CLCPA Compliance.” Doreen Harris is President and CEO of an agency called the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency (NYSERDA) — the agency that is supposedly leading our glorious transition to green energy. Readers of this blog may remember that in November 2023 I attended a confab which I named the “Krazy Klimate Konference,” where Ms. Harris had given the keynote address. I took the following picture of Ms. Harris as she began her address.
Before going farther on the latest memo, it will be worthwhile to recall what I had to say about Ms. Harris and her address at the time:
[The Konference] was essentially all mindless happy talk. . . . As I took the picture, Ms. Harris was uttering the words “I co-chaired our Climate Action Council.” That’s the Council that last December issued the so-called “Scoping Plan” telling us how to achieve carbon-free energy — a “Scoping Plan” that in 700 or so pages couldn’t even figure out that energy storage needs to be measured in watt-hours rather than watts. To an endeavor that cries out for hard-headed engineering expertise, Ms. Harris brings a head full of air. Here are a few scattered excerpts that give the flavor of her presentation: “We are leading the nation. . . . We see industry responding in an extraordinary way. . . . There are near term challenges [no mention of what those might be]. . . . We’re looking at a massive build-out of the grid. . . . We need lots of wind and solar. . . . We have a 10-point plan to see these challenges through. . . .”
Well, it seems that in the intervening two and a half years, Ms. Harris has discovered that there are costs associated with this energy transition. Or, at least, she has discovered some of the costs. Her memo in particular contains figures from some modeling done by NYSERDA as to how much the “cap and invest” program, should it be implemented, is likely to drive up the costs of oil and gas in New York State. This introductory paragraph is highlighted in Ms. Harris’s memo:
Absent changes, by 2031, the impact of CLCPA on the price of gasoline could reach or exceed $2.23/gallon on top of current prices at that time; the cost for an MMBtu of natural gas $16.96; and comparable increases to other fuels. Upstate oil and natural gas households would see costs in excess of $4,000 a year and New York City natural gas households could anticipate annual gross costs of $2,300. Only a portion of these costs could be offset by current policy design.
Those numbers should certainly be enough to get someone’s attention. The “cap and invest” program, after all, is nothing more than an arbitrary system to create artificial scarcity to drive up prices of fossil fuel energy in order to reduce consumption. It’s just intentional impoverishment of the people. Who ever thought this could be a good idea? The projected incremental cost of gasoline here would represent a near 70% increase from a current average price of about $3.25/gallon; and the incremental natural gas price of almost $17/MMBtu would represent more than a 500% increase over the current price of around $3.20.
And dare we tell Ms. Harris that these incremental costs are only a small fraction of the vast agglomeration of extra costs that the CLCPA would seek to inflict on New Yorkers. Her memo contains no mention of incremental costs for things like building a second system of electricity generation from wind and sun without being able to get rid of any of the fossil fuel generation; for additional transmission; for overbuilding; for grid-scale battery storage; and on and on. Elsewhere I have estimated that these things together could raise the cost of electricity for New Yorkers by a factor of ten or more.
Ms. Harris’s memo then drew a prompt and sharp response, dated March 5, from a group of some 29 Democratic State Senators. The Democrats hold a big majority in the State Senate, and this 29 represents about 2/3 of them — but still just short of a majority in the 63 member body. These people are all serious advocates, and also seriously innumerate. They don’t want anyone going wobbly on the CLCPA commitments. Excerpt:
[W]e, the undersigned senators, categorically oppose any effort to rollback New York's nation-leading climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, and urge you to stand strong in the face of misinformation that seeks to blame the CLCPA for the energy affordability crisis that fossil fuels have created.
To these ideologically committed State Senators, it is obvious that the issues of energy affordability are entirely the fault of the evil fossil fuel companies, notwithstanding the fact that the states with the biggest pushes for “renewables” (California, New York) have the highest electricity prices. Again from the letter:
In reality, rolling back the CLCPA will not save our constituents money because it is not the cause of increasing costs. It is the fossil fuel status quo that has created the affordability crisis New Yorkers are now suffering from, and it is bold action to deliver renewable energy and energy efficiency that will give them relief, saving money for individuals in the immediate-term and for all utility customers in the medium- and long-term.
They are completely delusional. However, nothing but an actual disaster, if that, will ever convince them that they were wrong. We have to recognize that if we successfully take a somewhat graceful off-ramp from the green energy delusion, these people will go on believing that the CLCPA would have worked if only it was really tried. (Like Socialism.). So maybe we are better off going off the cliff.
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The people of NYC voted for Mamdani and the cliff.
Why plague us with BS from the failing state of New York?
New York is withering and is of no interest to real America
You’d have to be bat $hit stupid to believe that CO2 is a pollutant and that the economy must be destroyed to prevent catastrophic climate change.
It’s a scam, always has been and always will be but NY will lead the way to disaster.
Merton writes the same chicken little column every month. Despite his incessant warnings nothing will change until energy shortages cause blackouts and exorbitant price increases. CA is going to beat NY to the cliff anyway.
By all means, run off the cliff. The subsequent tears from bawling progressives will be delicious.
Bkmk
Nothing will change their direction. A disaster is the goal. The "noble cause" to which they credit their actions is merely a deception to confuse and delay opposition.
Such people must be removed from any position of authority.
NYC is filled with indoctrinated, angry morons. At this point, may as well enjoy the show of a city unraveling because there isn’t a darn thing that can be done to stop it.
Never forget, right NYC?
Ms. Harris calls herself Ms because no one wants to have anything to do with her ? LOL
or she’s just a neutral nut
Leftists will ALWAYS choose the cliff for the Cannon-Fodder Lemmings to run off of.
They themselves will always stop at the edge just in time, let everything get destroyed, and begin collecting new Lemmings for the next run.
And they will AGAIN manage to avoid that run over the edge for themselves.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
The "Cannon-Fodder Lemmings" never seem to notice that their leaders never go over the edge of the cliff chosen for them.
Because as P.T. Barnum famously said: There is a sucker born every minute.
LOL!!! Let’s all help push it OFF the cliff.
So, the USSC is officially "bat $hit stupid" Thank your justices.
That is what will make a real difference in energy consumption.
It is expensive, hard and dangerous to store electricity.
It is relatively cheap, safe and easy to store solar energy in the form of heat in concrete, stone or water.
We have been doing so for over 40 years with increasing success.
Today I am going to flush our solar hot water loop from the collectors to the heat exchanger, convert it from an open loop to a closed loop, adding a bladder type expansion tank.
Then am going to work at installing 4 more panels for heating concrete floors that are presently being heated by our System 2000 boiler.
I did an experiment over a few years with solar electricity, with panels, Victron charge controllers and a large battery bank.
On a sunny day we can run all but the electric induction stove and refrigerator on solar.
If we have had good sun in the summer, we can go one night.
If it it cloudy for more than one day, back to the grid power.
Of course this gets worse in the parts of the year when there is less sun.
I wonder if the clueless leftist extremist ignorant barbarians realize the earth tilts away from the sun seasonally?
I calculated we would need 67 times the panels and batteries we now have powering the house to go off grid.
We presently have 6 195 amp hour AGM batteries fed by 2KW of solar panels.
IMHO off grid solar electric is the way to go for backup and reliability.
I power all of my ham radio gear with solar both at home and on the road.
All of our lighting, 2 Engel fridges and boiler can run off solar if needed.
If we have enough sun, we can run the microwave and one induction burner.
These starry eyed nuts need to be taken to the woodshed.
CO2 is used by plants and trees to grow....its called photosynthesis.
That's why growers have tanks of CO2 in greenhouses.
Exactly.
I’m not arguing that. I’m just telling of the USSC decision (law of the land) that CO2 is a pollutant and the EPA has the duty to regulate it. Add pollutants to the list of things they cannot understand. You know, like what a woman is?
Hog processors use CO2 chamber rooms to process hogs. It works very well. They pass out while the heart keeps beating to bleed them out as best as possible. They pass out, get hung up by the back legs, throats cut, and bleed out, while on a conveyor line.
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