NY State Leads the Way  by Tom Reynolds

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), back in 2019, effectively prohibited construction of new fossil fuel power plants and the old ones are forbidden to be replaced or upgraded. Governors Cuomo and Hochul proudly point to New York leading the way.

How’s that working for you?

It was hot in the NY City area on July 2nd and 3rd, but not close to a record.

The Institute for Energy Research wrote that on July 2nd and 3rd: “Con Edison shut off electricity to over 5,000 customers in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, leaving residents there without air conditioning...Con Edison had decided the N.Y. grid could not handle the load, saying the shutoffs were necessary to reduce strain on the grid, protect equipment, and speed up restoration. The company also cut voltage by 8% in areas of the city as a precaution to protect equipment and keep service running while crews worked.”  (Emphasis added)

A Southern Westchester County resident, (just north of the Bronx) emailed this: “Over the weekend of July 3-5, [t]here were numerous power surges associated with the rolling blackouts where the lights went on and off several times before going out. . . .  Those surges destroyed a bunch of equipment in my home despite having surge suppressors on the equipment. . . There is thousands of dollars in damages related to the surges.  Based upon the Facebook Page MOPS (Mothers of Pelham), my home was not the only one impacted as many people are complaining about electronic equipment not working after the blackouts, notably air conditioners. . . . My home is going to need about $3000 worth of new battery backups.”  

Did the ‘paper of record’, the NY times find any of this newsworthy?  Apparently not; while reporting on the heat wave, one sentence in the 6th paragraph of a July 3rd article mentioned: “The heat also put stress on power grids, contributing to scattered outages in New Jersey, New York and Ohio for tens of thousands of utility customers on Thursday...” 

But…we need to reduce fossil fuel usage and rely on solar and wind generated electricity to save the environment.

So, to protect NY State’s environmental leadership reputation, you probably didn’t hear about this: According to Westchester County officials: 

• At 9 p.m. on July 2, Con Edison reduced the power being funneled to the plant by 8% due to an extreme regional heatwave, resulting in a power failure at the facility. 

• As the on-site generators require a complete outage — not just a reduction — to activate, power could not be transferred from the generators to the equipment.

• At 11 a.m. on July 3, the plant managed to restore power to its primary treatment system. However, when power was distributed to get the second treatment system up and running, all power in the plant was lost.

While power was out, sewage seeped into the Hudson for 17 hours, according to a state alert system.  Oops!

Three months earlier, on April 2nd, lohud.com happily reported: “Some fish caught in the Lower Hudson River are now safe to eat, the state Health Department declared this week, relaxing a 50-year-old advisory meant to limit exposure to cancer-causing PCBs.” (Emphasis added)

So, every 50 years there is a three months window to catch some fish in the lower Hudson River. 

Yep.  New York State is putting its best government minds to work saving the environment and will continue to do so until things get so bad that those who sit back and let this happen, by not voting, will finally have had enough.  But will it be too late? 

Do you like having electricity?  Think of voting as keeping your refrigerator running.