By David Wojick
Hell done froze. New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a leading contender for Greenest Governor in America, wants to redo their infamous Climate Act because New Yorkers cannot afford it. This is a sure sign that the rapidly rising cost of energy has become a big election issue.
Hochul’s position kicks off what promises to be a grand show over the next three months. New York State is between a rock and a green hard place. Change the law or do the impossible — their choice.
What set this all off is a court ruling that the Climate Act is in fact a law, not a political promise that can be ignored when convenient. The law calls for an impossible 40% cut in New York’s CO2 and other GHG emissions (from 1990 levels) by 2030.
The 2019 law, which remains one of the most ambitious in the country, gave the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) until January 2024 to issue regulations that would ensure New York meets these binding greenhouse gas emissions targets.
DEC never issued those regs, so a bunch of Big Green groups sued. DEC explained in court that issuing the regulations was “infeasible” because it “would require imposing extraordinary and damaging costs upon New Yorkers.”
The judge simply ruled that the law is the law and gave New York State two choices: change the law or issue the regs. The deadline is February 6, 2026, which gives the legislature a mere month to change the law, since it only starts in early January. Changing a law this big that fast will be very hard.
If the law is not changed, then final regs are due on that date, so they must be working on them now. However, Hochul says they will appeal this decision which might (or might not) drag things out for more months. The confusion is huge.
In any case, the NYS Legislature has to already be looking hard at this. Especially given that rising energy cost is a hot election issue and 2026 is an election year for every legislator. Furious lobbying must already be going on. The holiday season will be very green indeed.
There is a hilarious back story on the electric power side of these fanciful emission cuts. There have been lots of seemingly serious planning documents prepared by New York State electric power offices that are actually fictional.
These so-called plans make extensive use of a fiction called “dispatchable emissions-free resources” or DEFRs. It is acknowledged that DEFRs do not exist — except nuclear, which is not considered. So, there is no actual plan for meeting the Climate Law’s 2030 deadline. It simply cannot be done.
Anyone interested in this electric power fiasco should check out the Pragmatic Environmentalist of New York run by Roger Caiazza here:
Roger has steadily tracked and analyzed the Climate Law electric power nonsense for a long time, including submitting a lot of official comments that have been ignored. Now his warnings are coming alive and out of the Governor’s mouth no less. Congratulations, Roger!
There is also a national version of this story that will play out in slower motion over the next few years. Hochul correctly points out that the end of federal subsidies will make renewables a lot more expensive. Almost all states have climate or renewable mandates requiring a steady shift to renewables. These mandates are about to become a lot more costly to voters, so a lot of laws may change.
In summary, the New York State Climate Law is finally hitting the wall. The Law is the rock, and the impossible regulations are the hard place. Something has to give.
Stay tuned to CFACT as this great green drama unfolds.
Schadenfreude!
Forcing politicians sucking up to greens have
to do more than virtue signal is so sweet.
And JUST in time for the Everything-is-Free Mamdani regime …
Communism has failed everywhere it has been tried. New York is about to be its next big failure. Breadlines in the dark. Famine riots. Cannibalism. Shades of Ukraine in 1932. I predict the NYSE will leave next year, for Florida or Texas. Rats and the homeless will occupy the Wall St. sky scrapers. Bad movie. Taxpayers from elsewhere will be asked save the commie idiots who brought this on themselves. I vote no, if I have a vote, which I probably won’t.
China is the exception
You really think so?
China is currently suffering a huge economic crash. The housing bubble has popped, the big banks are insolvent, and many people are having to scavenge in trash cans.
Under Deng Xhao Ping (I remember how to pronounce his name, but not how it’s spelled in English) China got rid of most aspects of communism.
The current premier (Xi – that one I can remember) is determined to bring communism back and the results were predictable.
Take a smartphone or tablet around to enough of the Chinese ‘slave labor wages’ factory worker population who can never afford such luxuries, and use the videos on those devices to show them the basic wealth and routine basic daily life comfort that’s being enjoyed in capitalist countries around by the majorities of their populations, and then show the impoverished Chinese workers how the top ‘factory owners’ under government oversight in their own country are hoarding all the wealth ….. and you may have one of the most epic overthrows of a communist regime in history.
China was a disaster until they dumped communism. Unfortunately the current premier is trying to bring it back.
And I bet the UN will claim it shouldn’t have to be paying the rent on its buildings there any more because the neighborhood has turned to shit.
Let them move with a goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
I am not sure the UN does pay rent as were they not granted the land in perpetuity by the Rockefeller Foundation??
There comes a point where one has to lay in the bed they have made. It is not kosher to ask to swap with others.
New York has to fail, and fail HARD, as an example of how not to run a city.
Affordability and green. Together again.
They’ll NEVER be together. Might as well try marrying a butcher and a vegan.
Mamdani is just now learning that nothing is free if nobody will raise taxes to pay for it. Each and every one of his grand Socialist schemes requires NY State lawmakers and the feckless Governor to allow him to raise the taxes he promised. And raiding the police and infrastructure budgets won’t cover much of a fraction of the costs of his promises.
Mamdani – anagram for/unscramble the letters is “I AM MADMAN.”
Shouldn’t that be “I Madman”? There’s only 7 letters!
According to and going strictly by The Marquess of Queensberry Rules, yes.
Now the minimum absurdity in the entire lifetime of this crazy “CLCPA” story can be achieved by simply repealing the law. No need to work on it, adjust it, extend it, etc. Poof. Gone. Likely, given the politics? No. But hey, why rule it out as an option? There is nothing in the law that does anything for the “climate” anyway.
There.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
The second law of thermodynamics causes a lot of trouble for these idiots.
Lawyers can only handle laws written by lawyers – but not always.
“dispatchable emissions-free resources” or DEFRs
There is a Sidney Harris cartoon with two folks in white lab coats in front of a chalk board. In the middle of a full board of mathematical jargon there is “Then A Miracle Occurs”
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%2Fid%2FOIP.1udU0kqu8yTBWV5oWDrOegHaCu%3Fpid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=b666103cc5a0bd28a052be4b92fd8bac2168efa9452d45cf389469a7f88d631f&ipo=images
That is one of my favorite all-time cartoons from the ’60’s. It was never more appropriate than the time one of my professors, in ALL seriousness, told our class (“Potential Theory”) of some of his research: the bottom line to a convoluted presentation was, “If the data do not fit the model, then obviously the data are wrong!”.
No one in that class ever trusted anything he said again. If he told us something, we verified it independently.
And for those who doubt he meant it, trust me, he DID. It fit his personality perfectly.
NY just recently SHUT DOWN its operating DEFR.
INDIAN POINT.
Effing morons.
The adults are certainly NOT in charge; its children, or turtles, all the way down.
Both Roger and Francis have been telling these knuckleheads that they can’t do what they say they are going to do for years. Lying and cheating are not okay, these knuckleheads are about to find out why. Yet another example of worthless crappy government, government should never be in charge of something as important as our energy and this proves it.
Physics is a bitch.
(Oh, and it is probably racist, since it uses math.)
Somebody should inform the “math is racist” crowd that much of modern mathematics can be traced back to peoples like the Arabs and the Mayans.
Those racist bastards. /sarcasm
DEC explained in court that issuing the regulations was “infeasible” because it “would require imposing extraordinary and damaging costs upon New Yorkers.”
And now on top of that they will have the damaging consequences of a communist mayor. Good luck NY, glad I visited a couple of years ago, ’cause I’m not coming back for the foreseeable future.
#MeToo
Yep, you just have to stay away from deep blue states.
“The 2019 law, which remains one of the most ambitious in the country, gave the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) until January 2024 to issue regulations that would ensure New York meets these binding greenhouse gas emissions targets.
DEC never issued those regs, so a bunch of Big Green groups sued. DEC explained in court that issuing the regulations was “infeasible” because it “would require imposing extraordinary and damaging costs upon New Yorkers.”
The judge simply ruled that the law is the law and gave New York State two choices: change the law or issue the regs. The deadline is February 6, 2026, which gives the legislature a mere month to change the law, since it only starts in early January. Changing a law this big that fast will be very hard.”
*******************************
Just shut off all the electricity for NY State. Simple. No need to make things any more complicated than they need to be. I can hardly wait for February 6th next year.
Voters should always get what they asked for.
Fun how all of this plays into campaign promises of free buses/public transportation, free pre-school, city run grocery stores, etc.
We need a cartoon of the business stampede out of NYC.
The little Commie can’t meet any of his promises without the approval of the State legislature and Governor to raise taxes on New Yorkers.
As I said previously in a comment to Roger’s WUWT article, the plaintiffs in the New York lawsuit have another legal option assuming that DEC doesn’t meet the judge’s February 6th 2026 deadline. That option might, or might not, work for them; but from their perspective, it might be worth a try.
These environmental groups are well funded and have a variety of regulatory experts at their beck and call. In the next two months, the plaintiffs could fund an effort to quickly draft an interim set of emission regulations which meet the Climate Act’s requirements and then ask the judge to impose that ‘interim’ set of regulations on the DEC.
The plaintiffs could also fund a quick effort to develop a pencil-whipped, more-detailed engineering feasibility analysis which supports their own talking points concerning what the Net Zero transition compliance targets in New York state will cost, and how long the transition will take.
Based on how well the plaintiff’s own proposed set of regulations complies with the Climate Act, and on how well the pencil-whipped engineering feasibility analysis appears on paper in terms of having a professional look and feel — the study just has to look like a credible analysis, even if it isn’t one — the judge would have every justification to impose an interim set of emission regulations on the DEC.
Taking this approach gets everyone off the hook. (Except for New York’s ratepayers, of course.)
— Governor Hochul can say, “It wasn’t me who did this. I have to follow the court’s decision.”
— The DEC doesn’t have to go through an involved public comment process. The DEC senior staff can say, “It wasn’t us who did this. We have to follow the court’s decree and impose the interim regulations without further public input.”
— The power utility CEO’s don’t have to defend themselves from an angry public. The CEO’s can say, “It wasn’t us who decided to do this. We have to comply with the court’s decision.” (Let’s remember that utility CEO’s are expected to take the heat for whatever goes wrong, for which they are handsomely compensated.)
— The environmental groups can keep themselves busy monitoring the state’s compliance with the judge’s court order. And pursuing more litigation if the state, the DEC, and the power utilities don’t comply with the judge’s decree.
Assuming their own legal team buys in to this strategy, the environmental groups which comprise the plaintiffs would have every good reason to adopt this strategic plan; i.e. to have the judge impose an interim set of emission regulations on the DEC.
Forcing an interim set of emission regulations on the DEC would further grease the skids which lead into the power blackout abyss. No doubt about it. One reason why the course of events would go that way is because the ‘interim’ regulations would become permanent, for all practical purposes.
And, as I remarked in my previous comment, if New York is certain to fall into the blackout abyss anyway, it might as well happen sooner rather than later.
Yes but for example they would have to cut gasoline and diesel use by 30% which might be noticed. Electricity is the least of it. Most of the energy use is from transportation and heating. They are 10% below 1990 in fossil energy use and the law basically requires 40% below by 2030, just 4 years away. It cannot be done.
Just confiscate the keys. It can be done. The consequences…. different story.
Ref. 1997 Rocketman.
How many Freds are there saying, “Wasn’t me!”
Note, that statement was in reference to a “methane event.”
Sort of adds to the irony.
The organizations that brought up the lawsuit are enamored with cap and invest as a “solution” so their regulations would go down that path. Proponents of that approach have not figured out that when they set an unachievable cap the only way to comply is for the affected entities to stop operations. As David points out if gasoline sales stop when the allownances run out people will notice. I suspect notice would take the form of a march on the Governor’s mansion with pitchforks and torches.
Without a major change in attitude it is only a matter of timing for the blackout abyss.
Should have a pitchfork-and-torches march on Gracie Mansion as well.
After EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin rescinds the Endangerment Finding of 2009, whatever will Gov. Kathy H. and the Albany Climate Alliance do?
Will they eat humble pie and reluctantly repeal climate agendas and laws?
In many regions of NYS, there are long, snowy and cold winters, and fossil fuels keep New Yorkers from freezing to death. What are the guys thinking?
Thing is, they’re not (thinking, that is) Love that crack that: “The brain is a marvelous organ. It starts working in a mother’s womb and doesn’t stop working until you get elected to Congress.”
Definitely stealing that!🤣😂😅
No, Harold, they will sue Administrator Zeldin and the USG. And keep on with their own foolishness.
I really don’t much care what happens to NY. It will not be the first city in the US to have destroyed itself with viciously bad municipal government (Detroit) and it will not be the last. It and its fools of citizens have made a host of decisions over the past couple of decades to bring on the collapse. Well, now they get what they voted for.
Call it the Revenge of Indian Point, if you wish. Or, if memory goes back further, the Revenge of Shoreham.
As Mencken said, “…the common man knows what he wants and deserves to get it good and hard.” NY voters should stock up on lube.
While I agree with the sentiment, there will people who suffer from this. I do not wish harm on anyone, even if a consequence of their own stupidity. That does NOT mean I endorse being robbed to bail them out.
Sparta,
See Roger Caiazza’s comment and my reply to him below. You may wish no harm on anyone, even it is from their own stupidity. But nature and fate have a way of imposing a cost on stupidity anyway. It is unfortunately one of the ways we humans wise up (or at least some of us anyway.)
In particular those who suffer being those NOT stupid enough to vote for the commie moron.
People forget that NY politicians shut down three nuclear units including the brand new Shoreham unit. The state would be that much further along to their GHG emission reduction goals if they were all operating.
Shoreham cost $6 billion which Long Islanders ended up having to pay for. They received little if any electricity in return….
On May 19, 1989, LILCO agreed not to operate the plant in a deal with the state under which most of the $6 billion cost of the unused plant was passed on to Long Island residents. In 1992, the Long Island Power Authority bought the plant from LILCO. The plant was fully decommissioned in 1994.
Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant – Wikipedia
People don’t forget, they die and then new people come along born into never knowing what happened in the past. When older people who do remember pass along the details, their eyes glaze over as if you’re teaching a history lesson.
Let’s just hope that the money-center banks and the NYSE get completely out of the NY tax environment before the collapse becomes serious. The NYT and CNN can stay.
Texas Stock Exchange – TXSE – https://www.txse.com/
J. P. Morgan recently announced as a strategic partner – https://www.txse.com/press-releases/txse-group-raises-250-million-in-capital-following-second-funding-round
Mayor-elect Zorhan Mamdani famously said “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.” Providing enough electricity for the 2030 GHG mandate should be a breeze.
Better be a sunny breeze.
A government that is big enough to give you everything you want, is also big enough to take everything you have.
Origin unknown
DEMS: We passed a LAW!
Laws of Physics: Let us tell you about King Canute…
DEMS: We will ignore the law!
Courts: You can’t ignore the law that’s why its called the law!
Laws of Physics: Let us tell you about King Canute…
Mamdami: We’ll follow the law AND make the electricity free!
Laws of Economics: That won’t work…
Laws of Physics: Shut up Economics, we’re trying to explain physics.
Darwin Awards: Shut up both of you. We want to see where this goes.
Very nicely put, and funny as Hell.
Agreed
Well can it be funny and make me increbibly sad at the same time? (I believe in mankind, we are supposed to be better than this!)
The intent was to make you laugh while delivering a sober reality.
Its funny cuz its true.
A lot of us have been saying the Green Raw Deal will founder on reality. I personally simply do not understand how actual “normal” politicians can put up with the pretense of the Green Raw Deal being feasible, other than being small frogs in small ponds who will flip sides in the blink of an eye as soon as they see the writing on the wall.
10% for the “Big Guy” may be at play.
Australia is so awash with rooftop solar that Blackout has just instructed all retailers to offer zero cost energy from 11am to 2pm.
That will kill solar sales but boost battery sales.
Irrespective, Australia has charted a course for de-industrialisation by 2030. Now all but guaranteed.
“Australia has charted a course for de-industrialisation by 2030.”
China & India, say thank you !!
I notice too that Native Title awards are being weaponized in some areas to effect “mission creep” that stymies employment-generating development enterprises.
Maybe all States in Oz will be adopting what Victoria has done – make sure that 9 out of 10 new jobs are governmental positions at one level or another, I.e. – paid from the taxpayer’s teat.
I remember a dilly dally in Econ 101 make a conjecture that everyone should simply be an employee of the government. Kinda like the WPA during the Depression where they told you where to work. Most of us chuckled and he was asked where the government gets the revenue to meet payroll!
When I took Econ 101 in the late ’60s, the textbook was “The Economic Problem” by Heilbronner. He claimed a nation having huge debt was a fine thing.
but… but… there’ll be MILLIONS of new, high paying, green energy jobs! /s
Cue the old music from the Navy’s “port of call” recruiting commercials, while showing images of people spraying solar panels with Windex and wiping them down in the desert.
This is a sure sign that the orders to the muppet show have changed.
«A big election issue» is something that belongs to quasi-historical urban fantasy genre.
“Changing a law this big that fast will be very hard.”
“The 2019 law, which remains one of the most ambitious in the country, gave the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) until January 2024…”
I can see a weasel way around this. Just amend the law removing any deadline.
The problem with that approach is all the amendments and add ins the politicians will “require” to get the votes to pass it.
Rube Goldberg would be proud.
Or delay January 2024.
as reported at the American thinker – recent tests show that CO2 doesn’t retain heat once the heat source is removed- hence it is not a GHG – problem solved
Well, its a damn pass-through; Once the molecule ‘wiggles’ (emitting EM energy) its downhill from there … look up the term IR Spectroscopy for an example how this works …
Once again, but in different form – follow the money.
Repeal the legislation – easier than amending it.
Give the land back to the Lenape?
And then demand THEY reduce their emissions?! 🤣
What amuses me most is that I will be fighting to declaw the law and the Green Governor is on my side! She is running for re-election in 12 months. We actually have a chance of winning.
I am working on a post that makes that point. The enviroloons are going to explode when she declaws the law. Get the popcorn.
I am hoping to get some big guns. But only the Assembly can change the law.
climate activists love Mamdani:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05112025/new-york-climate-advocates-celebrate-zohran-mamdani-win/
Why not? Under his “leadership,” NYC will soon be dark and without food.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
This situation is the new standard.
Laws, mandates, and regulations are represented by pert charts for the energy transition, net zero 2050, market penetration of H2 energy, etc. These are failures. They began to appear around 2015 or a bit earlier, and are uniformly 5-10 years behind plan after 5-10 years of development.
Committing sepuku does bring death.
This sounds like NY state has given up on their green targets, no matter what the law says:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/nyregion/underwater-gas-pipeline-nyc-approved.html?searchResultPosition=1
First New York state. Who will be next? The UK must be in the same place having made an idiotic Act?