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New York Governor’s Ban of Natural Gas Will Send Residents Looking for Non-Greener Pastures
May 09, 2023 / Written by: Gary Isbell
New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the state will be officially bowing out of the natural gas business. Through relentless pressure from environmentalists, Hochul and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) have caved in to green demands. The state will be eliminating eliminate fossil fuels.
In a declaration of war against conventional energy, Hochul announced that New York is “going to be the first state in the nation to advance zero emissions in new homes and buildings.” This move will turn New York into a progressive green example of cutting ties with traditional energy sources and embracing wind and solar energy more fervently than ever.
Thus, New Yorkers can no longer benefit from using clean, inexpensive natural gas. This ill-conceived agreement will make them more dependent on electricity with its sky-high utility prices. An already overloaded electric grid may soon face blackouts and breakdowns.
This significant victory for radical environmentalists will have a negative impact on everyday lives. Hochul hopes that other states will soon follow suit under the pretext of preserving the environment for generations to come. However, electrifying the future is fraught with problems that makes it unsustainable and unreliable.
Indeed, Hochul sees things quite differently from her constituents. A recent poll by Siena College found that barely 39 percent of registered New York voters supported banning fossil fuels in family homes by 2025.1
The governor also differs in her practice of energy usage. “Rules for thee, but not for me” seems to be a consistent behavior with liberals as Hochul has maintained gas stoves in the Governor’s Executive Mansion and her personal own home in Buffalo, New York, while denying others to right to use gas.2
New York liberals deny the evidence that the cleanest, most reliable, and most abundant electricity is nuclear power generation. Radical environmentalists would prefer to eliminate progress than rely upon abundant, reliable and inexpensive power from nuclear energy. In addition, natural gas is also cleaning burning.
However, these facts are ignored in favor of the use of ugly, inefficient and unreliable wind and solar power. The ban on natural gas is an ideological decision not an economic or scientific one.
New York made a huge statement toward leading the nation to misery by banning natural gas under its new budget. The move will trigger massive electric demand on the grid due to the electric heat pumps, which work similar to air conditioners in the summer. New York must also deal with a draconian 2022 the sale of gasoline-powered automobiles by 2035. The green agenda will likely see more New Yorkers leaving for “non-greener” pastures in red states.
The abolition of natural gas in New York will influence the national debate in many ways. Hochul’s move will embolden less-radical green politicians to adopt more radical dependency on electric energy. The strain on the national grid will endanger many necessities most Americans take for granted such as plentiful water, sufficient heat during winter and air-conditioning during the summer, especially for the elderly and infirm. This change could also impact medicine, hospitals, manufacturing, transportation and infrastructure.
The whole leftist liberal agenda gains by this move since the left understands how to unite all its causes into one. The demand for green energy will meld into the call for structural changes.
Finally, New Yorkers will face a significant financial burden, especially for those struggling to make ends meet. Currently, petroleum products generate 43 percent of the state’s electricity, with only 6 percent coming from wind and solar. Thus, the government green mandates will force a sevenfold and expensive expansion of the unreliable and inefficient renewable sources that will be passed on to consumers.
The proposed mandate will no doubt face legal challenges questioning whether governments can even ban the use of natural gas. A decision by the United States Court of Appeals by the Ninth Circuit Court overturned a Berkeley, California ordinance abolishing “obsolete” gas infrastructure.
The role of the State is to promote the common good of all. Abolishing the use of natural gas, which provides for a substantial portion of New York’s utilities, is not a mandate that favors the common good. It is nothing more than the forceful implementation of a leftist green agenda that aims to move society leftward toward misery.
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