Kathy Hochul may be waking to NY energy woes—yet won’t fix the problem

Gov. Hochul may have finally awoken to the state’s looming energy nightmare.

Too bad she’s befuddled about how to prevent it.

Her energy summit last week was meant to reckon with an inconvenient truth: All the pixie dust in the world won’t help New York meet its goals to abandon fossil fuel.

Above all, the gov refuses to admit that state and city climate laws that “mandated” the impossible, and imposed requirements to supposedly get there, were mere ventures into Fantasy Land.

The goals: Have New York get 70% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, and zero net greenhouse-gas emissions by 2040.

In the city, new limits on emissions from buildings are supposed to cut GHG output by 40% by 2030 and by 100% by 2050.

The problem?

The plan called for closing down fossil-fuel-run power plants without offering a realistic way to replace all the energy they produce, let alone to cover the state’s naturally growing electricity needs.

They also mandate changes that boost the need for more juice — such as having owners electrify their buildings (despite the enormous cost) and forcing a mass switch to electric vehicles.

And New Yorkers are already running short of juice.

As summer approached, a report by the New York Independent System Operator (which oversees the state’s electric grid) warned of “reliability risks.”

And the state has flagged a “renewable energy deficit” of 42,000 gigawatt-hours: That’s how far expected capacity is from the 115,000 GWh a year needed to meet the 70% goal by 2030 — and most of New York’s renewable output now is hydropower, with zero room for growth.

Experts (and common sense) say it’s impossible to meet the target with just wind and solar.

Even Democratic state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has blasted the plan for failing to fully assess risks, meet targets and properly project costs.

New Yorkers are already being socked, with utility bills soaring by as much as 40% in parts of the state since the plan went into effect.

And its final price tag — and the risks of blackouts — are just the start of the problems.

As New Yorkers for Affordable Reliable Energy notes, “Co-op and condo owners and boards cannot responsibly convert their buildings to electric without assurance that there will be sufficient electricity available, particularly during the coldest times of the winter” — “people could freeze to death.”

They fear being held legally liable if they convert buildings to electric and leave tenants in the dark — or the cold or heat — if there’s no juice.

Yet Hochul still aims to stick with the plan (though the summit at least suggests she may be more open to relying on more nuclear energy to meet her goals).

The gov blames “the global pandemic, supply chain issues and increasing energy demands” for her woes and seeks “a fresh look” at the issue while “reconfirming our commitment to the clean energy transition.”

Acknowledging a problem is the first step to solving it, but so far the gov is closer to denial.

To avoid disaster, Hochul should push to put the laws’ mandates on hold until all the holes are plugged — which probably won’t happen for decades.