{"id":36541,"date":"2026-08-10T14:01:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T09:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=36541"},"modified":"2026-08-10T14:01:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T09:01:51","slug":"blame-gov-kathy-hochul-and-the-legislature-for-nycs-power-peril","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=36541","title":{"rendered":"Blame Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Legislature for NYC\u2019s power peril"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F08%2Fgovernor-kathy-hochul-speaks-44th-136944849-e1786316407696.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/09\/us-news\/democrats-let-down-majority-black-ny-city-as-police-bigwig-accused-of-joining-son-in-gang-drive-by-critics\/\">New York City<\/a> doesn\u2019t have enough available energy to meet the needs of a serious heat wave <em>or<\/em> an especially frigid winter.<\/p>\n<p>The city is now relying almost nonstop on two aging emergency electric power-supply barges off <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/09\/us-news\/boat-overturns-off-liberty-island-coast-2-victims-in-critical-condition-sources\/\">Brooklyn\u2019s Sunset Park<\/a> to keep the lights on and apartments cool, Crain\u2019s reports.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, Gotham is already relying on its last line of defense against blackouts, and at high risk of catastrophic failure.<\/p>\n<p>If these aging stations fail, or demand spikes in, say, a week of 100-degree-plus temps, we\u2019re in big trouble. <\/p>\n<p>Blame Albany Democrats \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/07\/business\/tish-james-kathy-hochuls-pursuit-of-kalshi-raises-questions-about-why-theyre-ignoring-polymarket\/\">Gov. Kathy Hochul <\/a>and our feckless state Legislature.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Albany rushed to close the Indian Point nuclear plant, choke off new supplies of natural gas and retire fossil-fuel power plants far faster than alternative sources could come online \u2014 while simultaneously booting electricity demand by pushing shifts to electric cars, heating and so on.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--more inline-module--author inline-module--more--thirds\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<h2 class=\"inline-module__heading subsection-heading subsection-heading--underline subsection-heading--underline--indent-30 \">\n\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"subsection-heading__sub\">Post Editorial Board<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>And Hochul only recently began even talking about slowing down the madness.<\/p>\n<p>The insane state Climate Action Plan closes reliable natural-gas power plants, <em>aiming <\/em>to replace them with expensive and less reliable solar and <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/09\/04\/contractors-up-the-price-by-54-for-offshore-wind-farms\/\">offshore wind<\/a> farms as well as massive battery-storage facilities.<\/p>\n<p>And the alternatives aren\u2019t getting built anywhere near as fast as the plan requires.<\/p>\n<p>New York\u2019s oldest-in-America power infrastructure needs immediate improvements  as experts warn that the system is operating near its limits.<\/p>\n<p>Even if we dodge blackouts, we still suffer: New York households pay the third-highest residential electricity prices in the country, trailing only Hawaii and California, per the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.empirecenter.org\/energydata\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Empire Center\u2019s Energy Data Bulletin<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"single__inline-module inline-module inline-module--newsletter aligncenter inline-module--nypostbusinessunit aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-newsletter\" data-source-unit=\"Inline Newsletter Module Post Opinion\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__title-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__unsubmitted-title-wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"inline-module__title headline headline--combo-sm-md\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"inline-module__title headline headline--combo-sm-md\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>NY prices in May were up 12% from a year earlier, rising at twice the US average.<\/p>\n<p>California is the only large state with higher residential electricity prices, thanks to similar-but-worse \u201cclimate\u201d policies.<\/p>\n<p>The politicians will rush to blame Con Edison and other utilities, but these companies have to do what Albany orders \u2014 no matter how insane.<\/p>\n<p>Looming blackouts are an existential threat \u2014 and inevitable unless the state abandons its climate madness.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York City doesn\u2019t have enough available energy to meet the needs of a serious heat wave or an especially frigid winter. The city is now relying almost nonstop on two aging emergency electric power-supply barges off Brooklyn\u2019s Sunset Park to keep the lights on and apartments cool, Crain\u2019s reports. In other words, Gotham is&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/governor-kathy-hochul-speaks-44th-136944849-e1786316407696.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}