Gov-wannabe Tom Suozzi is right to be furious about Con Ed’s request for an 11% hike in electric rates and 18% for gas. Yet rather than blame the company, Suozzi should point his finger at fellow Democrats — and probably himself, too. It’s their climate-change agenda that’s driving up the bill.
Con Ed wants the hikes to fund “investments in clean energy,” along with assorted infrastructure improvements. All told, it hopes to pass along costs of $1.7 billion for renewable energy to reduce its carbon footprint.
“New Yorkers already have some of the most expensive electric and gas bills in the nation,” Suozzi gripes. “Asking my constituents to swallow a dramatic, single-year increase to their electric and gas bill is unreasonable when they already pay nearly 50% more than the average US household.”
True, in 2020, New Yorkers coughed up an average of 18.34 cents per kilowatt-hour of juice, vs. just 13.15 cents nationally. Yet Suozzi fully backs transitioning to green energy, which is precisely what’s driving up costs here. Yes, he calls for “balance” so as not to “crush” ratepayers, but he expects the feds to chip in to achieve that balance.
Hello? Washington just handed New York $13 billion in COVID “relief” cash; how can anyone expect it to pay more? And remember: Nobody forced Albany to seek carbon neutrality and declare war on fossil fuels. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo banned fracking, blocked gas pipelines and held up new gas-hookup permits. The state also passed fanciful carbon-emissions targets and regulations meant to transform the economy, regardless of cost.
State Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris similarly fumes that Queens residents are paying 300% more for electricity: “Con Ed needs to answer for this,” he roars.
Please. Gianaris knows full well Con Ed doesn’t actually produce and sell electricity; it merely ships it from power plants to customers and passes along charges set by those plants. Those rates largely reflect prices for natural gas used to generate the juice — prices now soaring thanks to the green transition Gianaris and Suozzi demand (as does Gov. Kathy Hochul, who’s looking to force it even faster).
President Joe Biden deserves much blame, too: The prez killed the Keystone XL pipeline project and banned oil and gas leases offshore, on federal lands and in Alaska. His team’s drafting rules that will make fossil-fuel production and use more expensive. His Build Back Better plan would escalate the Dems’ War on Energy even further.
As a result, power plants already face sky-high costs, which they pass to consumers. And the saddest part is that all this pain won’t do much to lower global temps, especially with China and India spewing greenhouse gases freely. (Plus, as Bjorn Lomborg notes, absent any action, climate change will mean the world will be “only” 436 percent as well off in 2100 as now, instead of 450 percent.)
Dems like Biden, Gianaris and Suozzi should admit it: It’s their green agenda that’s driving up energy costs. Instead of griping, maybe they should rethink those plans.
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February 20, 2022 at 10:39AM
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Biden, Suozzi & fellow Dems should blame themselves — not Con Ed — for soaring electric bills - New York Post
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