On June 24, New York came frighteningly close to a blackout. A brutal heatwave forced air conditioners into overdrive, and the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) declared an “Energy Warning.” That’s not a minor notice, it means our grid reserves were so low that officials were preparing for the possibility of cutting power to homes and businesses to avoid a total collapse. This is yet another wake-up call.

As Zilvinas Silenas of the Empire Center recently warned in A Warning for New York’s Energy Policy, our state’s power grid is under mounting strain because Albany leaders continue to put political ideology ahead of practical reality. His assessment of the looming energy crisis could not be more timely, or more accurate. For five years, the Governor, and our State Legislature, have pursued energy policies that put political ideology ahead of practical reality. In 2019, they made the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) a focal point, which promised a green-energy utopia. At the same time, they used their power to shutter energy plants, like Dunkirk NRG. The result, is that New York was left with an aging, shrinking power supply and no realistic plan to meet growing demand.

According to NYISO’s 2025 Power Trends Report, New York is losing generating capacity and still relying on plants built during the Carter and Reagan years. While our state government promotes and subsidizes renewable energy our energy supply is becoming more compromised. Wind and Solar combined provide less than 6 percent of our electricity.

New York’s energy price fixing scheme is expensive and irresponsible, but it is also increasingly intolerable. As our government imposes mandates for electric cars, buses, trucks and home heating, while knowing full well our grid can’t handle the load. They’ve driven away investment in reliable gas and oil plants, suffocated projects with red tape, and left families footing the bill for skyrocketing energy costs. This isn’t leadership. It’s negligence. And it’s dangerous.

If our Governor and State Legislature had been honest, they would have admitted years ago that New York simply doesn’t have the electricity supply to meet their radical mandates. Instead, they’ve gambled with our economy, our wallets and our safety, and June 24 showed just how close that gamble came to failure. It doesn’t have to be this way.

We should hit pause on the push for total electrification until we have the power to support it. We should invest in common-sense energy efficiency, like weatherizing homes to cut bills and reduce demand. We should modernize our existing plants with cleaner, more efficient technology instead of letting 50-year-old generators limp along until they break. And we must embrace every available source of reliable energy, including nuclear, natural gas and next- generation technologies, without Albany’s endless bureaucratic roadblocks.

Albany Democrats have had six years to get this right. The warning lights are flashing. If we don’t change course now, the next time the grid falters, it may not just be a warning, it may be the lights going out.

Assemblyman Molitor represents the 150th Assembly District, encompassing all of Chautauqua County. For more information on Assemblyman Molitor, please follow him on Facebook.