Former New York Governor George Pataki is blasting the Empire’s State’s “ignorant” clean energy plans as “pie-in-the-sky” nonsense that will never happen.
New York has passed unsustainable laws that would require “net-zero carbon emissions by 2040,” and “70 percent renewable electricity sources by 2030.” But Pataki is calling out these mandates as nonsense and says the state will never reach the mandated goals, the New York Post reported.
“We have an enormous, looming gap between energy use and energy generation in New York State.” That gap stands at about 50 percent already, he said during an appearance Sunday on 770 WABC’s The Cats Roundtable show.
Pointing out the obvious — that the renewable energy plans are absurd because the sun doesn’t always shine for solar, nor does the wind always blow to turn wind turbines — the Republican, who was New York’s governor from 1995 to 2006, excoriated the Democrat establishment’s “ignorant” long-term energy plans.
The law, signed by former Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019, requires the state to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030, and 85 percent by 2050. These plans, Pataki said, are “incredibly short-sighted and ignorant.”
“That’s just not going to happen. We need to continue to have fossil fuel generation whether we like it or not,” he scoffed.
And with the energy gap already as big as it is, the mandates will make matters worse.
“We’re going to see the need for energy in New York State probably double between now and 2040. But we don’t have the ability right now, or the planning, to fill that gap in any way that is actually going to work,” he explained.
“We have to start now planning to put new [energy] sources [into effect]. The most logical ones are small nuclear reactors that can generate power locally and fuel an entire community with zero emissions,” Pataki said, suggesting the nuclear energy is one solution.
“I hope the state gets its act together and starts looking at that in an aggressive way very soon,” Pataki concluded.
Sitting state Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has mentioned nuclear power as a solution to the state’s growing needs. But aside from releasing a “draft blueprint” for energy solutions, no actual move toward nuclear has come from Albany.
But there are already warnings that the big switch away from oil and natural gas will cause New York homeowners to suffer under skyrocketing costs for heating and powering their homes, not to mention the strain on the power grid as more and more homes end up being forced to ditch gas and oil and rely completely on electricity.
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