In 2019, with great fanfare, then New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which Democrats claimed would usher in a new economic era in which New York state would lead the world in Net Zero (carbon free) electricity generation, and create a thriving new economy.

A mere six years later, the bloom is off that particular rose. Excelsior denied.

Cuomo also signed legislation to eliminate our existing nuclear plants, which were clean, safe, low-cost producers of Net Zero power. Why would Cuomo want to take nuclear power off-line and replace it with coal-fired electricity from Pennsylvania? Perhaps he had a plan. In the ultimate insider trade, Cuomo’s policies drove down the value of nuclear stocks, which he later purchased at rock bottom prices. Now Cuomo pushes nuclear, and more than 40 U.S. companies are contracting to build their own nuke plants to avoid the devastating effects of laws like Cuomo’s CLCPA.

But Cuomo’s shenanigans left his political heirs like Kathy Hochul with two big problems: (1) Net Zero is absolutely impossible, particularly if nuclear energy is prohibited, and (2) NY State is wasting billions of taxpayer dollars to build an expensive and unreliable electrical grid that will destroy what is left of our economy. Look no further than England and Germany to behold the result of Net Zero policies.

It is now obvious — even to the casual observer — that a Grid based on Wind and Solar is a disaster waiting to happen. Thus we can conclude that any New York politician who still supports CLCPA is actively promoting the destruction of the state economy. But Albany Dems have yet another problem: (3) Even if they now understand the problem of Net Zero policies, how do they walk-back their previous insistence on the Net Zero and anti-nuclear mandates in CLCPA without admitting their total incompetence from the beginning? Reality strikes hard in the land of unicorns.

Hence, Hochul has been forced to quietly crack open New York’s nuclear door last September by suggesting nuclear power as backup for Wind and Solar. Of course, using nuclear for backup is patently absurd because it is ideal for baseload power all by itself. If we have nuclear, we don’t need to waste any more resources on Wind and Solar infrastructure. Just build the nuclear!

After years of condemning nuclear power in order to benefit the Dems’ Wind and Solar donors, Hochul suddenly had her Road-to-Damascus moment, and announced her plan to build a 1 GW nuclear plant to help power New York City, which is now starved of power because it lost 2.2 GW of clean power when Hochul shuttered the Indian Point reactors. Hochul wants us to praise her for proposing a measly 1 GW nuclear plant when we could have just kept Indian Point running.

Of course our goal should be 100% electricity from nuclear and existing Hydro (hence conserving fossil fuels for the future), and we (authors) have always supported a shift to nuclear. But this shift should have taken place 10 years ago, instead of pushing the madness of Wind and Solar. Imagine how many resources we wasted on Wind and Solar that could have been invested in nuclear to put us ahead of the game. Instead, we are now years behind and much poorer, thanks to Hochul and her Dems.

The bigger question, however, is not about power technology, but rather about the ridiculous nature of NY politicians. Why did it take Hochul so long to correct course and acknowledge nuclear, yet still (paradoxically) claim support of CLCPA? She must have known of the economic disaster that will come from CLCPA, but her ideology trumped the well-being of NY citizens. She could not be honest about CLCPA until the ugly reality of “renewables” became undeniable.

After years of declaring nuclear to be unsafe and expensive, Hochul suddenly waved her magic wand and declared nuclear to be safe and cheap! Her utterly inept rationale was: “Bill Gates said it is OK!” Or perhaps she didn’t know what she believed until the polls told her what to believe.

It will be fun to watch Hochul manage yet another monster she created: Consider her supporters who, through the goodness of their generous coexisting hearts, invested their money into Wind, Solar, and BESS, all of which are total losers without massive subsidies, and will be worthless as we move toward nuclear. The suckers include the public employee unions that put their investments into Wind and Solar, as well as many others in the insider trading scheme.

Oh, the carnage! Albany’s nuclear Chickens have come home to roost.

In order to stave-off electoral disaster, Hochul is also delaying implementation of other CLCPA mandates like “clean truck” regulations, and is delaying rate increases for electricity in NYC caused by the 3X cost of “renewables” for which utilities must pay the exorbitant Strike Price mandated by NY State. Hochul also delayed the EV mandates until after the 2026 election. She clearly sees the writing on the wall, but refuses to openly admit the folly of CLCPA.

In addition, the schizophrenic Dems are doubling down on de facto subsidies for Wind and Solar through NY Bill S2018 – which robs localities of tax revenue from Wind and Solar farms. This is a gift to Wind and Solar companies by transferring their tax liability to the little people. The artifice never ends.

While NY politicians wander around in their Green-induced haze like hippies at a Jimi Hendrix concert, the rest of the world has realized that Net Zero is a non-solution to a non-problem that merely wastes resources and sacrifices our futures on an ideological altar. Hysterical claims of worsening storms, droughts, floods and fires caused (ostensibly) by CO2 are easily dispelled by a survey of actual climate data (see US Climate Data Center). But, don’t expect the Left to acknowledge this inconvenient truth if it interferes with a good political patronage scheme. They must have their caviar.

Will Hochul have an attack of conscience and begin repeal of CLCPA? Don’t bet on it. She will keep manipulating us, hoping for another term to bleed us dry for her donors.

Michael Dee is a Silver Creek resident and Scott Axelson resides in Jamestown.