Northern GOP lawmakers push against climbing energy costs

ELIZABETHTOWN | With mounting backlash and concern over New York's energy law known as the Climate Leadership and Protection Act (CLCPA), northern GOP lawmakers are ramping up a months-long push to repeal the mandates contributing to a statewide affordability and implementation crisis. On Wednesday, both Sen. Dan Stec and Assemblyman Matt Simpson again highlighted the unsustainable energy burden, bringing climbing financial hardships to residents, school districts, small businesses and all corners of living. The renewed push follows a recent memo from the state's own experts at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority that detailed the thousands of dollars in climbing costs put on New York families. The memo gave a stark overview of the direct impacts challenging everyday life, finding that upstate families heating with oil or natural gas could pay more than $4,100 more in annual heating costs. Gas prices could rise to $5.25 per gallon and small businesses faced with 45 percent higher utility costs, the memo said. "We all want cleaner air and a healthier future for our children. But this policy is driving up costs on working families right now, and the pressure is only growing," Sen. Dan Stec said March 4. Fighting to repeal the CLCPA and stop the cap-and-invest tax, Senate Republicans have introduced S.8607 to eliminate the legal mandate forcing the price spikes On Wednesday, Assemblyman Matt Simpson (R,C-Adirondack) joined Senate and Assembly Republicans in Albany to spotlight the unsustainable energy mandates and highlight the severe financial burden they will impose on New Yorkers without urgent reforms. Simpson said Assembly Minority members have long sounded the alarm on the CLCPA's unrealistic timelines, lack of affordability safeguards and threats to energy reliability and grid stability, and that the NYSERDA analysis validates those concerns and the need for a balanced, pragmatic approach that prioritizes affordability and keeps the lights on for all New Yorkers. "For years, the Minority has been warning that the CLCPA's aggressive mandates and inflexible timelines would lead to exactly this outcome. We have dramatically higher energy costs that hit working families hardest. Now, even NYSERDA's own analysis confirms it," Simpson said. "While the environmental goals may be admirable, the solutions cannot be worse than the problems they aim to fix. New York already leads the nation in out-migration, largely because of our state's ongoing affordability crisis. Forcing New Yorkers to shoulder the tab for these policy shortcomings through skyrocketing utility bills is simply unacceptable and unsustainable," Simpson concluded. Sen. Stec said without action from Gov. Kathy Hochul and Albany Democrats, energy bills will only continue to climb. He urged North Country residents to voice their concerns directly and join the calls for action by calling Gov. Hochul's office at 518-474-8390 or visit ny.gov and tell her: Repeal the Cuomo/Hochul climate tax now before it breaks New York families. "We are in this fight together," Stec said. When asked Thursday, Feb. 26 where she stood on the CLCPA and recent indications she plans to make changes to the law, Gov. Kathy Hochul said, "I don't think it's a surprise to anybody that affordability when it comes to energy costs is a real issue right now, and the world has changed dramatically since 2019. I wish it hadn't. I wish all the circumstances and metrics that were looked at back in 2019 had remained consistent. "But a pandemic, which disrupted global supply chains, raising the cost of everything we're trying to do to build more clean energy, renewable energy. Inflation drove up costs. I mean, projects that we thought were going to come to fruition were actually shut down or pulled by developers because they weren't going to make money for wind energy. "I'm working hard on this, and I really want everything I can to address people's real concerns, yes about the climate, but also about the fact that people's energy costs — I mean, just talk to anybody about the utility bill within the last couple weeks. It is staggering and we cannot just tune out those cries for help from New Yorkers who are just getting crushed under the weight of this. So I, we are, listen, I'm not going to ever, you can ask me as many times as you want between now and the end of the Budget — I'm not going to telegraph what we're talking about in our negotiations, but I think everybody knows that we have a real problem on our hands. "And so — and also dealing with the very hostile federal government. When I look at the fact that our offshore wind was part of the equation when we tried to get to meet our goals here and they pulled the plug on. And it's only back — and I talked to the secretaries who are involved in this in the White House a couple of days ago, they said, "Oh, Empire Wind went back on, so what are you complaining about?" "I said, "It went back on because I beat you in court," I said. Don't make it so difficult for me. Why do I have to go to court and win in court to do something that'll power half a million homes in Brooklyn this year? I'm counting on that energy. I'm also — we'll also have hydroelectric power coming down because I launched the CHPE program bringing hydroelectric power from Québec all the way down to power New York City to help replace the nuclear energy that was shut down a few years ago. So I'll say this: This is an enormous challenge. I'm up for the task. I'm looking this above all-the-above approach and closely engaged in the legislators."

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Northern GOP lawmakers push against climbing energy costs

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