New York’s leaders seem determined to make this year’s end-of-session legisla🐲ting the ugliest ever. The latest example: The Climate and Community Protection Act.
The act sets ambitious goals for eliminating greenhouse-gas emissions and transitioning to “clean” energy. Lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo reached a deal on it this week — then opted to skip the usually required step of having༒ it “age” three days to give lawmakers a chance to read and consider it.
Instead, they🥃 asked Cuomo to simply issue a totally unnecessary “message of necessity,” to l🎃et the bill go through without deliberation.
Smart move, since the CCPA sets up mysterio𒀰us means to impossible goals.
It “requires” the state to end nearly all manmade greenhouse gas emissions (from cars, power plants, factories) by 2050. And to reach 100% “clean” electricity by 2040. But it leaves implementing all that to state agencies, with no guidelines on cost-benefit tradeoffs or anythin෴g else.
Well, one guideline: The CCPA r🍸equires state-funding “green jobs🧜” to pay union wages. That’ll save the climate!
R♚eality check: As recently, the state has yet to hit its 2010-set target of having 30% of its electricity come from renewables by 2015. Indeed, last year, New York got less of its juice that way than the year before.
Actually hitting the new goals would mean vast economic pain unless new technologies miraculously appear to make it easy —ﷺ in which case, who needs a law?
Yet the law is still a license for arbitrary agency rulings — to ban, say, new oil𓄧 furnaces or certain manufacturing processes or even gasoline-fueled cars.
Lawmaker☂s will claim victory, when they’ve just passed another dog’s breakfast.