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Time To Get Real About NY’s Energy Plans
In 2019, with virtually no legislative debate, New York’s legislature passed the CLCPA, the most radical energy legislation in the country. This law set extraordinarily aggressive requirements for limiting greenhouse gas emissions, but amazingly, it didn’t specify how they would be achieved or how much they would cost the people of New York.
Today, lawmakers, including Governor Hochul, are acknowledging that the plans developed to meet these goals are unrealistic and costly and threaten the reliability of the electric grid. The Governor has postponed some of the costliest plans and abandoned some non-viable emissions benchmarks. But the core issues with these regulations continue to loom over NY homes and businesses.
Since the law was passed:
- Electric prices have risen to the third highest in the nation.
- Utility companies and the government have had to urge consumers to use less energy to avoid “massive blackouts.”
- Reliable power generation from traditional sources has diminished, while renewable power generation projects have been delayed, canceled, or suffered huge cost overruns.
- The NY Comptroller's office issued a scathing report highlighting the failures of the plans’ implementation and questioning whether the assumptions were valid.
- Natural gas and other fossil fuels have been banned from new construction.
- Although it’s delayed until the end of 2028, the new type of energy tax called Cap and Invest is still in the works. It will end up artificially inflating the cost of gasoline, natural gas, oil and propane for every New Yorker, and increase the cost of other goods and services.
- They are mandating that school districts will need to buy electric buses starting in 2032, which can cost twice as much as existing ones.
Most New Yorkers have no idea how much these plans will impact their lives and the state itself — whether you use natural gas, electricity, heating oil or propane; whether you rent or own; or whether you live in the city, suburbs or rural areas.
What should be done
In 2026, Governor Hochul and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle acknowledged that the 2019 law could not be enacted based on unrealistic timelines and with faulty assumptions without doing irreparable harm is done to NY families and businesses. We applaud their recognition of these problems and their taking some steps to mitigate the damage.
However, Albany still intends to implement a new energy tax in 2028 and is leaving over-ambitious emissions reductions requirements for 2040 and 2050 in place. This amounts to kicking the can down the road. What we need is smart, balanced energy policy.
New York cannot put all our eggs in one fragile electric basket. We need to focus more on increasing energy efficiency and insulation, which permanently cut fuel use. We should also be supporting traditional fuels that are becoming increasingly renewable, including Bioheat® fuel, renewable propane, renewable natural gas and more.
What could the current plans cost the families?
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CONTACT LAWMAKERSIn the News
Check out blogs, articles and commentary about the implications of electrification and the impending energy disruption that the CLCPA could trigger.
The Empire Center of NY released a new study that shows NY State is hiding the true cost of its climate action plans.
Roger Caiazza, former Executive Director of the Environmental Energy Alliance of New York, has worked on electric grid reliability in NY for four decades and has been examining the CLCPA proposal and sharing important insights about its shortcomings.
See what happens when Governor Hochul is pressed by reporters about the truth behind her energy plans.
To see updated articles and studies that affect your energy future, click here.
Multiple paths yield greater chances of success
New York's climate plans focus almost entirely on getting homes and businesses to switch to electricity as the sole answer for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But the cost to convert a home to heat pumps can run to tens of thousands of dollars, and NY already has some of the highest electric rates in the country. The cost of multiple wind projects have ballooned, and many developers have withdrawn from state contracts. What’s more, renewable power sources don't come close to meeting our state’s growing energy needs.
Fortunately, improvements are already underway in traditional fuels like natural gas, propane gas and heating oil that increase renewable content, reduce carbon and other harmful emissions, and increase equipment efficiency — at a far lower cost and with far less disruption to families and businesses. We need to include these fuels to assure both a better climate and a secure, reliable energy supply — at a price tag that doesn’t crush NY families and businesses.
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