It’s time to reform the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act
From NY State Senator Tom O’Mara
It’s difficult to pinpoint one single issue, above all others, which must be addressed in the new state budget currently being negotiated by Governor Kathy Hochul and the leaders of New York’s Democrat-led Legislature.
You’d be hard-pressed, however, to take your attention away from energy-related concerns. The cost of energy is playing out across the world’s stage, of course, however the nuts and bolts of the challenge right here in New York State still comes back to what state leaders are going to do to address (or fail to address) the ongoing fallout from their approval of the “Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act” (CLCPA) in 2019.
High utility costs remain the No. 1 constituent concern coming into my legislative office and legislative offices throughout this state.
When the CLCPA was first approved and during the nearly seven years that have transpired since then, state Democrats who champion the CLCPA have never produced a financial impact statement for the law. That is until a few weeks ago, when the Hochul administration, through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), finally released a memo outlining the “likely costs of CLCPA compliance.”
That memo reads, in part, “Absent changes, by 2031, the impact of CLCPA on the price of gasoline could reach or exceed $2.23/gallon on top of current prices at that time; the cost for an MMBtu of natural gas $16.96; and comparable increases to other fuels. Upstate oil and natural gas households would see costs in excess of $4,000 a year.”
The memo continues: “Likewise, similarly burdensome costs should be anticipated for small and medium commercial businesses. Depending on the utility and size of the facility, such entities could expect utility costs to increase by as much as 46%. Costs for operating a delivery truck would increase by over 60%.”
These costs will be felt by increased prices for virtually every good and service we purchase in everyday living.
It’s no surprise. Many of us who have opposed, from the outset, the onerous mandates, unrealistic timelines, and overall direction being imposed on all New Yorkers under the CLCPA as it currently stands have consistently called for a comprehensive and transparent cost-benefit analysis of what it’s going to cost ratepayers to keep going down this road.
And now that the cost of these ongoing CLCPA green energy mandates to ratepayers, taxpayers, farmers, truckers, school districts, manufacturers, small businesses, and local communities and economies are being acknowledged, the demand for change becomes more urgent.
Most recently, I joined Republican colleagues on the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee to call on Governor Hochul to immediately reconvene the state’s Climate Action Council (CAC) to undertake an updated review of the CLCPA with an eye toward outlining changes that can be made to this far-reaching climate law before the close of the current legislative session, if not sooner.
“Since the passage of the CLCPA, electricity prices are up over 50% here in New York,” we wrote. “This is not a coincidence. The mandates placed on utility companies have been borne by ratepayers…These costs have become unbearable for our residents. State policy has driven up energy bills to the point where people are being forced to choose between keeping the lights on and affording everything else. It is time for the Council to reconvene and amend the CLCPA to account for economic realities.”
The Climate Action Council was created under the provisions of the CLCPA. It’s a 22-member body appointed by the governor and both houses of the Legislature. In December 2022, the CAC approved a “Scoping Plan” that defined the specifics for implementing CLCPA’s broad-based clean energy and climate goals. That plan – that Democrat-produced strategy currently dictating energy policy in this state – has been desperately trying to inflict a zero-emissions economy on all New Yorkers that will have zero impact on the climate.
These actions are delivering a heavy price tag that will only get heavier as time goes on for ratepayers – unless we change course. If we don’t, the consequences for ratepayers and taxpayers, small businesses and manufacturers, school districts, farmers, and entire local economies will continue to be devastating. It has become clear that the current strategy is not realistic or achievable. It’s not responsible or rational. There was no cost-benefit analysis. It unreasonably risks energy grid reliability and affordability.
New Yorkers need relief now. Immediately reconvening the CAC is one surefire way to start moving in a different direction with greater foresight and common sense.
Our Senate and Assembly Republican conferences have advanced and will continue to promote actions to deliver much-needed relief to overburdened ratepayers and to put forth a clean energy strategy that is focused on affordability, feasibility, and reliability.
In addition to reconvening the CAC, we have been pushing a range of other actions and policies to put an end to numerous CLCPA green energy mandates, including pending rules requiring all-electric school bus fleets and all-electric buildings, and to provide immediate relief to ratepayers from skyrocketing utility costs.
Right now, the only way to reduce energy costs in New York State is to change Albany-driven energy policies.
