Kicking the climate can
Editorial - Albany Times Union - April 19, 2026

While leaders argue over affordability and clean-energy developers demand more money, the planet heats up more and more.

Link: https://eedition.timesunion.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=60937c9a-9666-40ca-a47e-22faa745c3ae&share=true

You might not know it from listening to the climate change skeptics in New York, but rising energy costs aren’t just a problem in this state alone. Costs are rising all across the country, and for a variety of reasons.

But that fact is often overlooked in the debate over whether New York should scale back the goals of its 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which requires the state to get 70% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, and to achieve a carbon-emissions-free energy grid by 2040.

Prudently, the state planned to phase in the changes that would be necessary to transition to cleaner energy. This year, for instance, the act prohibited fossil fuel cooking and heating systems in new construction under seven stories.

The construction and real estate industries had seven years to prepare for this. Yet to hear the political outcry, you’d think the rule popped out of nowhere on Jan. 1. And you’d think the CLCPA, which has only begun to be implemented, is to blame for New Yorkers’ rising electricity costs, even though people are seeing price hikes in states with no significant climate change initiatives.

That’s so even in energy-rich West Virginia, where The Associated Press recently reported on how electricity bills are skyrocketing in a state whose Republican-run government has strongly resisted clean energy in favor of keeping unprofitable coal plants open.

The AP noted that in just the past year, electricity increased 4.8% in February nationwide and piped natural gas prices rose 10.9% — well above inflation. And that was before the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran sent energy costs soaring even further.

Among the many other reasons are the cost of maintaining aging infrastructure, rising fossil fuel prices, extreme weather and events that push up energy demand and repair costs, and greater consumption of energy, fueled in no small measure by new big users like AI and cryptocurrency centers.

Complicating all this is the politically charged economics of clean energy. President Donald J. Trump has been sabotaging wind and solar projects, putting off-shore wind energy ventures on hold even as he encourages more oil and gas drilling off the coasts of Alaska and California and in the Gulf of Mexico. Last year, Congress repealed or curtailed clean-energy tax credits that helped fund wind and solar projects and helped people better afford electric vehicles, install solar units and heat pumps, and make their homes and businesses more energy efficient. Mr. Trump’s tariffs, too, have caused the cost of raw materials, like the steel necessary for power projects, to mushroom.

Those and other factors have slowed New York’s progress in bringing more clean energy on line. As the Times Union’s Ezra Bitterman recently reported, an estimated 60% of the major wind and solar projects approved by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority have been cancelled. Nearly two dozen more want to renegotiate their contracts, arguing that rising costs have made their original terms with NYSERDA unaffordable. If they aren’t built, some $9 billion in federal tax credits would be lost, along with enough clean energy for 2 million homes.

This is not the first time energy firms have threatened to walk away from their agreements if they don’t get more money. As we said the last time this happened three years ago — when some developers of offshore wind projects demanded the state allow them to charge higher rates — New York should demand a detailed accounting of their claims of unaffordability.

Beyond such specific pains of transitioning to clean energy, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Legislature must keep the big picture in mind as they try to work through their differences on a new budget. Yes, we understand the need for public buy-in on the sweeping changes the CLCPA will bring. But if officials are looking to scale back its mandates to grease their political prospects in an election year, that’s not leadership; it’s a craven retreat.

In all their debates about green energy, state leaders must remember this: The last 11 years have seen the warmest years on Earth since 1850; the last three were the hottest, and the heating trend is accelerating.

We must change how we produce and consume energy. We must demand more enlightened government policy.

Global warming isn’t going to wait for human beings to decide when they can afford to deal with it.

It isn’t going to wait for Mr. Trump and other deniers to get around to believing in it, if they ever will.

It isn’t going to wait for Democrats to restore some scientific sanity to Washington’s energy and environmental policies.

And no matter how far down the road presidents, congresses, legislatures and governors kick the climate can, it’s still going to be there, in our path. There’s no wishing it away.