Political Whisperer
By Robert Hornak
Now that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – one of the biggest pushers of global warming doomsday scenarios – has ruled out the more dire predictions from the last 30 years, will this change how states like New York deal with energy policy and the need for affordable energy?
The IPCC has spent decades attacking developed nations for using the world’s carbon-based economy to create better living conditions for their people, demanding that they penalize their populations for that benefit while demanding that countries like the U.S. give billions of dollars to less developed nations. Now they’re quietly walking back all the fearmongering they spread to justify their condemnations.
In the journal Geoscientific Model Development they write, “For the 21st century, this range will be smaller than assessed before,” saying that their previous dire warnings have now “become implausible.”
President Trump took a victory lap on Truth Social, posting that after years of “promising that ‘Climate Change’ is going to destroy the Planet, the United Nations TOP Climate Committee just admitted that its own projections (RCP8.5) were WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!”
Trump hasn’t been waiting for the green light and some in NY have also already been acting.
Just last month the Trump admin celebrated breaking ground on the Northeast Supply Enhancement gas pipeline that will bring gas from Pennsylvania through New Jersey to Staten Island and the Rockaways, and is expected to reduce energy costs in the region by $6 billion over 15 years.
Trump persuaded Governor Hochul to approve the permits needed for the NY portion of the project, after being held up in Albany for years by the green movement that opposes the expansion of any infrastructure for traditional fuel sources that provide the vast majority of NY’s energy.
It was in large part this opposition that has caused energy costs in NY to skyrocket over the last decade. This is why Hochul, who has generally supported the green agenda, has been looking to roll back the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), the NY law that is expected by even the most conservative estimates to add an additional $300 a month in electricity cost to every family’s bill.
While the IPCC claims that the use of wind and solar has allowed them to unwind their doomsday predictions, the numbers and history don’t support that.
The expansion of wind or solar has been minimal based on the proportion of energy they provide. Wind, which is the main focus for green initiatives, only provides 10% of NY’s electricity, and at a much higher cost than every other source. Offshore wind is 3.4 times the cost of clean burning natural gas, which has become the main source of our electricity over the last 20 years.
This while NY is still reeling from the closure of the Indian Point nuclear plant that provided NYC with 25% of its total electricity. Hochul is now also looking to build new nuclear plants in NY, realizing this is the only renewable that can provide a reliable source of energy and at an affordable cost.
Ultimately, the facts don’t really matter here for the green movement. What they care about is the way Western nations, and primarily the United States, have advanced due to their ability to harness the power of carbon-based energy and provide a far superior quality of life to their people than the rest of the world.
So don’t expect the political agenda to change for people like AOC who have been pushing this radical doomsday agenda for years. They are too invested in their attack to back down now. In the end the people’s need for affordable energy will prevail.
Robert Hornak is a veteran political consultant who has previously worked for the NYC office of the Republican Assembly Leader and served as Executive Director of the Queens Republican Party. He can be reached at rahornak@gmail.com and @roberthornak on X.
