Hochul’s senseless $75B climate cash grab will only speed New York’s decline

<p>Gov. Hochul last week signed a new climate bill forcing fossil-fuel companies to pay $75 billion in “recovery” assessments over the next 25 years for their alleged role in causing “extreme weather.” “It’s time for large polluters to pay their fair share,” she declared. But the claim is an unscientific joke — and the law, passed by some of the nation’s most obtuse and know-nothing legislators, means the political class in Albany just hit the gas pedal on the Empire State’s economic demise. Under this law, New York will “impose cost recovery demands” for extreme weather events “on responsible parties,” or fossil fuel companies, which “shall be strictly liable, without regard to fault ” (emphasis mine). Each company will be assessed a share of the $75 billion pot equal to its “applicable share of covered greenhouse gas emissions” — that is, carbon dioxide resulting from the fuel and power they have sold. But it’s a colossal money grab based on junk science, so arbitrary and capricious that court challenges are certain. Perhaps the discovery process will provide the opportunity to discredit this extreme-weather canard once and for all. The law will supposedly mitigate storm damage and pollution — yet no reputable scientist not feeding at the UN or government trough would claim such absurdities. Carbon dioxide emissions simply do not cause “extreme weather,” as we at CFACT and other experts have documented countless times . Just what “extreme weather” has affected New Yorkers lately? “Superstorm” Sandy ( not a hurricane) a dozen years ago , in 2012? An ordinary lake-effect snowfall of several feet in Buffalo? Historically, the worst storms to hit New York came 90 and 70 years ago. The New England hurricane of 1938 reached category 3 on Long Island and killed 60 people, and Hurricanes Carol and Hazel in 1954 each brought winds that exceeded 110 miles per hour. Hurricanes Donna and Esther hit New York in 1960 and 1961 with winds over 100 mph. If rising CO2 emissions worsen storms, how is it that storms have decreased ? In other words, Hochul is decades behind the times in seeking this compensation. And in reality, carbon dioxide is necessary for life on Earth, not a “pollutant.” CO2 comprises just 0.04% — that’s four one-hundredths of one percent — of the planet’s atmospheric gases. Minuscule changes to these levels are not melting Arctic ice or causing hurricanes. New York’s policies on carbon emissions, however, are directly harming the state’s residents. New Yorkers now pay some of the highest electricity rates in the nation, up by 13.6% in the last year alone. Gas prices here are seventh-highest nationally, currently averaging $3.13 per gallon. These costs will surely increase with the state’s new climate assessments on energy companies, which will inevitably pass them on to consumers. New York’s politicians also for years have refused to access the state’s abundant natural gas through hydrofracturing (fracking), as adjacent Pennsylvania and other states do. Those plentiful interstate deliveries mean the political class has been living in a fantasy world, pretending to “lead the nation” in addressing the “climate crisis” without suffering power outages and other ill effects. But their coming $75 billion climate slush fund takes such virtue-signaling to new extremes, imposing costs on New York’s residents and employers that won’t easily be offset from elsewhere. Among the ripple effects will be the further exodus of people, investment and jobs to saner states. Since 2020, New York’s net population has declined by 336,500, a 1.7% percent drop, the largest of any state both numerically and percentage-wise. The illegal immigration influx has brought billions in taxpayer costs without stabilizing those losses. So far, New York’s political class hasn’t paid a price for such economically reckless policies. The absence of a viable two-party system makes a primary challenger the biggest political threat to a Democratic incumbent, resulting in extremist policies like this to preclude one. As important, huge interest groups like public-employee unions and environmental nonprofits also feed off of government largess. This new climate “Superfund” provides a massive new piggy bank they can raid for years to come. Hochul signed this climate fund fiasco not for reasons of science or fairness, but as another suck-up to special interests for her 2026 reelection campaign. The resulting fiscal and economic harms to New Yorkers matter not at all. Her ongoing weakness and credulity have made her the worst governor in New York’s modern history. Peter Murphy is senior fellow at the nonprofit Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), which seeks free-market solutions to environmental problems.</p>