Every New Yorker without an electric vehicle is feeling the painful impacts of our dependence on fossil fuels at the gas pump, everyone without solar panels is experiencing the same in utility bills, and the oil and gas industry is laughing all the way to the bank. The largest oil companies are raking in an additional $30 million in war profits every hour.
The situation will not improve soon, and it’s only a matter of time until the next crisis. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, gasoline and diesel prices are likely to stay high for a while even after the Iran war ends. The full impact of the damage to the Middle East’s natural gas infrastructure will unfold in New York over time as U.S. suppliers boost profitable exports.
The economies showing the most resilience to the current energy affordability crisis are the ones that invested heavily in clean energy. Some of New York’s past astute decisions are also bearing fruit.
During last summer’s heat wave, rooftop and other small-scale solar installations reduced statewide peak electricity demand, saving ratepayers over $90 million on just the hottest day. As a result of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative — a successful multistate cap-and-invest program covering power plants in the northeast and mid-Atlantic — New York ratepayers are expected to save nearly $12 billion, representing a six-to-one return on approximately $2 billion invested to date.
Whether upstate or down, Republican or Democrat, New Yorkers want the same kind of future: one where our families are safe and comfortable in our homes, free from the burden of high utility bills and pump prices, and proud of the world we will pass on to the next generation. But powerful interests in the oil and gas industry have long sought to keep us divided because realizing the shared vision of our future imperils their profits.
With the blood, sweat, and tears of climate, science, and environmental justice advocates and the vision and wisdom of some of our leaders, New York passed a landmark climate law in 2019, but for the most part, we haven’t implemented it yet. The need and the urgency to implement the law has only grown with a rapidly worsening climate crisis and an energy affordability crisis stemming from our reliance on expensive, volatile fossil fuels.
New York has the ability to roll out affordable regulations for reducing fossil fuels’ climate pollution because the state controls every aspect of these regulations, federal government’s hostility notwithstanding. However, the fossil fuel industry has Governor Hochul’s ear and she’s proposing to almost completely dismantle the state’s climate law.
The climate law may need adjustments to reflect the delays already incurred, but the scope of the Governor’s proposals is unwarranted. It will deepen and prolong the oil and gas industry’s grip on our pocketbooks and make our pollution-reduction goals only harder and costlier to achieve in the future. State lawmakers and citizens alike must fight to save the key tenets of our climate law.
The forces who want to divide us and hold us in the past may be strong, but we know that when New Yorkers come together, we are stronger. So let’s urge Governor Hochul to unlock the modern energy system that will bring our state the brighter future we deserve instead of handing the keys to our future to the fossil fuel industry.