Don’t buy the propaganda from the climate extremists that Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature on a bill forcing homeowners to pay for natural gas hookups was a win for the environment. In actuality, it’s exactly the opposite.
The environmental extremists have long been trying to end the use of natural gas in New York. It’s a bonehead policy position. They ignore the fact that it’s the expanding use of natural gas that was primarily responsible for the sharp decline in America’s carbon footprint over the past two decades, while other nations around the world were increasing theirs. The reason we’ve cleaned our air is that natural gas offered a cleaner alternative to dirtier coal and oil.
But that wasn’t enough for the extremists. They wanted no fossil fuels at all and unrealistically called upon us to rely on wind and solar to meet our energy demands. They were lying back then when they said these alternative fuels could keep our lights on and now they’re having to backtrack on all their unrealistic time frames that are not even coming close to being matched.
This latest proposal will take away the longstanding policy of having the utilities pay for the hookup from the natural gas line in the street to the individual’s home. It’s a very expensive proposition. Forcing the homeowner to do it would likely deter a large percentage of the potential hookups to be abandoned. That’s exactly what the environmental extremist movement wants.
They want less natural gas and more electricity to heat your home. This electricity is tremendously expensive to the homeowner. It also ignores the fact that the power for the electricity must come from somewhere and it’s usually from the burning of fossil fuels at the generators miles away.
So all this new bill has done is discourage natural gas, thereby making us rely on oil, which will make our environment dirtier. And of course, it will smack homeowners with this new bill that they wouldn’t have had to bear before this bill signing.
It’s too bad that the media didn’t earlier disclose the real story behind this issue. Hochul has been held captive by the climate extremists, which has caused our electric energy rates to increase by 50% over the last several years. Too bad we don’t have stronger leadership at the helm.