Everyone knows that the forced electrification of New York will be an energy disaster, yet Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Albany Democrats refuse to admit that their green new energy deal will lead to skyrocketing costs and widespread outages.
Long Island lawmakers, led by Sen. Mario Mattera, have asked the governor to call a special session of the Legislature to repeal the electric mandate by year’s end. Hochul has already acknowledged that the state is nowhere near ready to abandon fossil fuels and has postponed the mandate. Many see this, however, as a stalling tactic to get her through next year’s elections; after that, they fear she’ll reinstate the edict just as she did with congestion pricing in New York City.
The entity that oversees the region’s energy supply, the New York Independent System Operator, has warned that the state does not have the capacity to meet the future needs of homes and businesses—let alone the massive demands of artificial intelligence, electric cars and trucks, and everything else that runs on oil and gas, including, to everyone’s chagrin, barbecue grills.
With Stony Brook University, Brookhaven National Lab, and other top-tier research institutions, Long Island should be at the forefront of AI research and development. This would provide jobs so that the students we pay so dearly to educate won’t have to move away to make a living. That won’t happen if Hochul and the Democrats continue to strangle our energy future.
The cost to electrify school buses, fire trucks, and new buildings could bankrupt Long Island. Our economic prosperity is already crushed under the weight of the highest taxes and government fees in the nation, and this could finish us off. It’s no wonder the Empire State leads the nation in outmigration to places such as Florida—which has a larger population yet thrives with roughly half the budget of New York, not to mention no state income tax.
New York sits on a massive supply of clean-burning natural gas—larger than all of Saudi Arabia. Tapping this energy source, as Pennsylvania does just across the border, would increase the economic fortunes of millions of New Yorkers. Yet head-in-the-sand Hochul won’t allow it. As windmills and solar farms turn into over-budget debacles, her latest scheme is to build nuclear power plants—an idea that cannot possibly meet near-term energy needs given their enormous cost, long construction timelines, and opposition from the same environmental groups pushing electrification.
The South Shore Press agrees with Senator Mattera and the Long Island Republican Delegation: Gov. Hochul must call a special legislative session by the end of the year and stop the electrification madness.
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