We’ve wondered if the state’s elected officials are listening to the different alarms raised about the likelihood of meeting the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

Republican politicians have raised countless objections that we’d liken to your car’s warning bell when you don’t wear your seatbelt. The Empire Center for New York State Policy has raised its own warnings that typically focus on costs and the slow pace of the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy that we’d liken to a smoke alarm in your kitchen when the hamburger sticks in a frying pan. The New York Independent System Operator has raised warnings about looming blackouts in New York City as soon as 2025 if fossil fueled peak power plants were taken offline too soon because renewable energy isn’t coming online quickly enough to replace the fossil-fueled plans. That warning is like the Emergency Broadcasting System warnings we all hear before extreme weather events.

In our opinion, the Public Service Commission’s recent decision not to give additional state subsidies for 90 renewable energy projects, including two major offshore wind projects that are expected to provide much of the renewable energy called for by the CLCPA, is an air raid warning for the state’s renewable energy plans.

Subsidies requested by the developers would have increased the cost to state electric ratepayers by about $12 billion. Two of the wind companies planning off-shore projects have said they will evaluate whether or not the projects are feasible without the additional state investment. It’s unclear what actions the state will take if the wind projects aren’t pursued by their developers. The state Legislature’s passage of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act in 2019 calls for having at least 70% of the state’s electric needs served by renewable energy by 2030, development of 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035 and meeting statewide electricity demand with zero emissions by 2040. We don’t see how Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 10-point action plan released after the Public Service Commission’s decision helps too much. The cost for the projects doesn’t change just because new projects start from the beginning with the subsidies built into them rather than seeking to boost them halfway through the project. The Public Service Commission just told the state’s elected officials the projects are too expensive for the public to pay.

Unless the state is simply going to give the money as grants or loans — and we can’t imagine how the state could afford to do so — it would seem these projects need to go back to the drawing board until they are affordable enough to be pursued.

The CLCPA has been, in our view, a goal that was impossible to reach in the short time frame the state was proposing. The Public Service Commission’s decision is just the latest in a string of reports, warnings and decisions that confirms that opinion.

The real questions are these: does the state hear the warnings and will it take cover rather than act as if everything is peachy-keen?